


Hotel Del Sol

by Arasei



Category: Gintama, 호텔 델루나 | Hotel Del Luna (TV)
Genre: F/M, Not a Crossover, Swearing, hotel del luna au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 42,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22734976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arasei/pseuds/Arasei
Summary: "I wonder - Did you throw away all my flowers?"Kagura kept eye contact, even as her fists drew tight over her knees. "It is rude to threaten people with weird bouquets once every year, yes?"The man hummed and tilted his head to better appraise her. He was young, only a few years older than Kagura herself. His features were handsome and unassuming, supported by the soft halo created around his sandy blonde hair in the light; but Kagura wouldn't let that fool her."You're the Grim Reaper my Papi talked about."His mouth twitched. "You have no idea how insulting that is. Reapers wear a completely different shade of black, y'know."
Relationships: Kagura/Okita Sougo
Comments: 182
Kudos: 259





	1. PROLOGUE

Kagura remembered her first bouquet of sunflowers — what it had felt like to run a finger along the furry softness of the saturated green stems, to hold the weighted package in her arms. There had been no particular smell to the flowers, nor had their yellow been especially beautiful; but the bouquet had been wrapped in thick expensive paper, with a quality printed card slotted in-between the leaves.

'Happy Birthday, Miss Kagura,' it read. 'From, the Hotel Del Sol.'

Later, she would look up the meaning of sunflowers. Adoration, said one book. Loyalty, longevity, and happiness.

Ironic, should've been one such word. Kagura was certainly never happy to see them.

For every year after her seventh birthday, a bouquet of sunflowers had been delivered to her doorstep every November 3rd, one bouquet for each year since her Papi's terrible agreement with the Grim Reaper.

The first was thrown away in horror by Kankou, who immediately made the decision for them to move far away as quick as possible. Her Mami was long gone and buried, and Kamui it seemed, was never coming back. There was nothing to be left behind except for a house full of faded memories, and so with only the clothes on their backs and a cloth bag of food, they relocated from Japan to the deep rural forests of China.

Their next house was tinier than the last one, but they found a way to be happy for a year until the next bouquet arrived. This one was burnt to ash in a metal bucket, and they ran away to the city of Beijing with the smell of burning sunflowers chasing at their heels.

By the delivery of the third bouquet, it became clear to Kagura that time was something they couldn't outrun.

"I'm sorry, Kagura-chan," her Papi once murmured, his breath heavy with the scent of the whiskey he'd tried to drown himself in. "I thought it wasn't real, I—"

"It's not your fault, Papi," she told him, because it was true. Her father was an idiot, but Kagura didn't think she could ever blame him for choosing to live, nor would she have forgiven him if he'd given up. And if she had been there, standing before the man in the clean pressed suit and his cold, cold eyes, she wouldn't have changed a thing. Kankou had been dying, and she had been six years old and needed her father.

_In fourteen years, I will come to collect your daughter._

Kankou survived - and in return, Kagura's soul was sold to the Hotel Del Sol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I thought about dropping this story, I would accidentally come across kaguraxsougo art on Instagram or Tumblr and instantly snap out of it. Thank you fellow okikagu fans, for your persistence and perseverance. This one's for you <3


	2. Alizarine Crimson

In her twenty-one years of life, Kagura had lived in twice as many places. From Beijing, to Amsterdam, to an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, there had always been a house Kagura called home until one day she didn't. 

But of all these places, Kabukicho would always be her favourite.

It was the town her mother had done her best to raise her in, and the one her brother had known like the back of his hand. Both had left it a seedy, crowded, and awful mess of a district, but in Kagura's memory, with her still-together family, Kabukicho was the warmest place on Earth.

With that said, Kagura could say with full confidence that even after her fourteen years of travelling, the people were still completely shit.

"I wasn't even the one who started that stupid fight, yes?!"

"I don't care who started it!" Her manager shrilled, and shoved Kagura out the cafe door. "Today was the last straw! You're fired!"

Kagura spun around, heated. "Didn't you hear?! I was defending myself, moron! You can't fire me—"

"The hell I can't! You argue with customers, you're a disaster in the kitchen, and you can't follow the simplest orders! _And—_ " he threw a wrapped bundle at Kagura, who caught it roughly in her arms, "—You treat this place like it's your fucking palace when it's not! Get your shit delivered someplace else!" And with that, the manager slammed his door shut.

She scoffed and made a rude gesture at the cafe, causing passing onlookers around her to gasp in offence. Seeing this, she snapped at them, "What are you looking at anyway, huh?" 

Some glared while others averted their eyes, but immediately, the crowd began to disperse. Kagura shook her head and looked down at the bundle, peeling back the wrapping paper. "What a jerk. I didn't even order anything, yes..."

She stopped, her fingers stilling over yellow petals. It was a bouquet of sunflowers. 

Kagura clenched her jaw, readjusting the wrapping paper with a trembling hand. Holding the bundle to her chest, she walked until she found the nearest bench and sat down harshly. She rifled through the flowers until she found what she was looking for — a card inserted neatly between the leaves. 

There was no birthday message this year. 'Dear, Miss Kagura,' it read instead. 'We are pleased to inform you of your successful employment at the Hotel Del Sol. You are expected to come into work tomorrow at 11 a.m. sharp. Our address is listed below.'

At the bottom of the card was a small map to a location at the center of Shinjuku. Her father had spent the latter half of his life looking for the building until he died, and all this time, it had been three train stops away. 

Kagura tilted her head back to look up at the setting sky. Last year, the deadline agreement of fourteen years had passed without the delivery of a bouquet or the Grim Reaper's arrival - she was now twenty-one and should've been free, which was the only reason she had even felt safe coming back to Kabukicho. But now...

"No," she said aloud, and straightened, the wrapping paper twisting between her fingers. Destiny could screw itself up the ass. Standing up, Kagura threw the bouquet into the nearest bin and marched towards the train station, long yellow petals fluttering in her path. She had run away before and she would do it again.

She hurried down the steps and onto her scheduled train, thinking of what excuse she would make for Shinpachi and Otae. Kagura hadn't told them anything of her life when she had first moved in with them, and she didn't intend to start now. "I'll pack in secret and leave a note," she decided, settling down on an empty train seat. "I can wait until they go to work, and the house is empty..."

The train continued to gain speed until it was cruising steadily along the tracks. Kagura was reminded of her father in their travels and of how he had liked to point out interesting scenery as he saw them pass by the window, no matter how inconsequential. Her chest tightened at the memory of his voice and she sighed, leaning her head tiredly against the glass.

At that moment, the train entered a tunnel, abruptly closing the passengers off from the world outside. Kagura blinked and sat up, feeling strangely disturbed. The train route was one she took almost every day, but that afternoon, she felt that there was something different about the tunnel. 

Kagura turned to ask the person beside her about the train's next destination, but almost as if anticipating this, the train began to pick up speed without warning. She inhaled sharply, holding onto the seat beneath her. The train whipped dangerously through the tunnel, causing the wheels to squeal loudly in protest and the floor to rumble beneath her feet. The fluorescent lights within the carriage flickered on and off wildly, illuminating the furious sparks flying outside the window.

"What's happening?!" she screamed over the noise, but nobody seemed to hear her. In fact, despite her carriage being completely packed with people, none were reacting to the lights or the speed of the train at all. 

Kagura sunk back into her seat with wide eyes when suddenly, the carriage went perfectly dark. The rumbling of the train quietened until the only sound she could hear was her own breathing. "Hello?" she whispered.

In response, the lights flickered back on — the train carriage was mysteriously empty. The only person left was a man in a pinned black suit leaning against the door. Outside, the tunnel continued to cruise by. The speed of the train had slowed to normal.

"Where did everybody else go?" she demanded of the other passenger. "Did you see what happened?"

The man cast a glance at her, his face carefully impassive. The flashing of the lights outside threw eerie shadows across his person. Ignoring her, he said, "You don't like bouquets?"

For the first time, Kagura's gaze was drawn to the wrapped sunflowers in his hand. Her blood ran cold at the sight. 

He pushed off the door and walked towards her. "I wonder," he said, taking a seat opposite from Kagura across the carriage aisle. "Did you throw away all my flowers?"

Kagura kept eye contact, even as her fists drew tight over her knees. "It is rude to threaten people with weird bouquets once every year, yes?"

The man hummed and tilted his head to better appraise her. He was young, only a few years older than Kagura herself. His features were handsome and unassuming, supported by the soft halo created around his sandy blonde hair in the light; but Kagura wouldn't let that fool her. 

"You're the Grim Reaper my Papi talked about."

His mouth twitched. "You have no idea how insulting that is. Reapers wear a completely different shade of black, y'know."

"I don't care," Kagura snapped, but she was nonetheless unsettled. "If you're not the Grim Reaper, then what are you?"

The man took on an amused expression. "I'm your new boss. And because you so rudely threw your welcome present away, I'm here to return it with the address to my hotel." The bouquet seemed to shiver as he spoke. "We don't want you getting lost on the way to work, after all."

Kagura noticed his avoidance of the question and frowned. "You missed the deadline last year, yes? You can't claim me."

"I _made_ that deadline," he pointed out. "I make the rules. Did you really think that moving two or three times a year would be enough to trick me?" 

This time, Kagura could not completely hide her surprise. The man grinned unkindly. "It was stupid and useless, but I decided that you deserved a good one-year break for all the effort you've put into avoiding me for thirteen years — and now that your time is up, you get to immediately start work at Shinjuku's finest hotel. Isn't that nice?"

Kagura's temper rose. "I don't want the job. I already work at a nice cafe, yes?"

"Do you?" He asked not so innocently. "It was my understanding that you were just fired."

Her mouth fell open at the implication. "Did you start that fight today?"

His eyes gleamed. "Maybe."

"Tell me!"

"Come in tomorrow and find out."

Kagura scowled, but swallowed her fury. "Will you kill me if I don't?"

The man raised an eyebrow. "After all the time I've spent on you? What's the point in that?"

She set her jaw. "Then forget it."

"Forget it?"

Kagura looked him up and down, feeling her confidence rise. As lean as he was, the man could not be much more than a head taller than her. Kagura had fought tougher and worse. "Yes," she affirmed. "I'm not going."

But the man's eyes narrowed. "Ah," he said, and the air grew cold. 

The floor began to shake and Kagura felt instinctively that the train had sped up again. Softly, the man said, "I knew I shouldn't have given you flowers every year. Decapitated birds would've sent a better message."

He stood up and walked towards her. The overhead lights began to flicker on and off again in panic. "If you weren't scared of me before," he murmured, his face shadowed, "Then I'll have to change your mind."

Kagura leaned back into her seat. "What are you doing?"

For the first time, she thought she could see something cruel in the twist of his mouth. The man took a step between her legs and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, his thumb tracing the line of her jaw to tip up her chin. Kagura's breath stuttered. He whispered, "I think a different present is in order this year."

She raised her hands to shove him away. "Wait—"

But the man paid no heed. He bent down to capture her mouth and he kissed her, slow and true.

Time stood still. For what could've been a minute or an eternity, the lights decided to stay on, and the rumbling of the train fell away to total silence. There was nothing but Kagura's hands on the man's shoulders, and his lips on hers.

Her eyes fluttered open as he pulled away, her fingers suddenly curling around empty air. Kagura saw for the first time that the irises of his eyes were red, cold and clear like the cut of a pomegranate jewel. They seemed to glow in the puttering light. 

"Happy Birthday," he smiled. _"Kagura."_

The lights flickered once more, and the man disappeared into the darkness.

Almost as if they had never been gone, the passengers aboard her carriage were restored in the same moment, none the wiser as to what had just happened. The ambiance of the train returned, and Kagura let out a shaky sigh.

She held a hand to her mouth and blushed, feeling the plumpness of her bottom lip. The entire exchange had been real, and to further prove it, the bouquet of sunflowers was back in her lap. Atop the wrapping was the same note from before.

'You are expected to come in tomorrow at 11 a.m. sharp,' Kagura read again, but in wet, shiny ink, a new line had been added below.

_'Don't forget.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I said I was never going to write another multi-chapter fic and then I went ahead and did it anyway. This one's gonna be a long one, kiddos. If you're in for the ride, then prepare yourself for a long journey of angst and pining.
> 
> Also, if any of you have actually watched Hotel Del Luna, this story deviates from it like a lot. Like a LOT lot. To suit the characters of Gintama, some things just _had_ to change, whether I wanted it to or not; so fair warning lmao, but I hope you enjoy anyway.
> 
> As always, feel free to leave a comment! I always love hearing from you guys, and I can't wait to hear what you think of the story and of how you think it will go. Thanks for reading!
> 
> Love, Arasei


	3. Viridian

The sky had already darkened into a deep blue by the time Kagura's train finally pulled into her stop.

In the walk back to the Shimura residence, she let herself be guided by the lampposts lit along her path as she continued to remember the exchange on the train. In her mind, the man was still leaning in, his red eyes glowing in the dark. 

_I think a different present is in order this year._

Irritated at herself, Kagura wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and spat. _"Fuck."_

It would be a dark day in hell before she would ever admit that even thinking of his kiss made her heart skip a beat, but thankfully, the interaction had done nothing to change her mind. As planned, Kagura would go home to pack her bags and proceed to get on the next plane for some destination halfway across the world. Perhaps Fiji — somehow, she had yet to grace the island with her presence in her travels, and this was the perfect opportunity.

Kagura picked up her pace with newfound determination and hurried along the street. At this time of night, there was nobody out in the quiet neighborhood, save for one little girl about to cross the zebra crossing some ways away. Kagura stopped short at the sight of a car coming down fast along the street.

"Hey!" she shouted, but the girl didn't hear, and the car didn't slow down. The girl took a confident step onto the road, and unbidden, Kagura found herself running forward, her heart pounding. "STOP!"

She reached to yank the girl back, expecting for her hand to close tight around her thin wrist, but something strange happened then — almost as if the girl was made out of air, Kagura's hand passed clean through her arm and went numb at the action, as if she had accidentally thrust her hand into a bucket of cold water. The girl looked back in surprise, and the car roared past them without regard. It turned a corner and drove away, plunging the street into a sudden silence.

The two stared at each other for a long moment, both equally stunned at what had just happened. Now that Kagura was standing up close, she could see that the girl was wearing a rumpled shrine maiden outfit, dirtied at the knees and sleeves. Her short black hair framed a round and youthful face, but could not quite hide the blood that caked her forehead.

In a hesitant voice, the girl finally spoke. "Can you... See me?"

Kagura blinked. The only answer she could give to that was a definite 'yes,' but whether or not the girl was real or made up was another question entirely. Either way, there was only one real way to find out. 

Kagura walked forward; and without knowing what would happen, passed right through the girl, causing the cold feeling to return in bigger force, like the entire bucket of water had been dumped over her head.

"Hey!" cried the girl. Kagura continued to cross the road, refusing to look back. That answered her question — she had had a very long day and was now clearly feeling the side effects. The girl chased after her. "You _can_ see me, can't you?" 

"Just keep walking," Kagura muttered, her hand tightening around her sunflower bouquet.

"Please talk to me," the girl persisted, trying to pull at Kagura's sleeves. "I just want to speak to somebody."

'Speak to somebody else!' pleaded Kagura silently, doing her best to not acknowledge the hallucination in any way. It felt like a mean thing to do, but the girl continued to beg for Kagura's attention the entire way home, and Kagura continued to grow more nervous of the consequences should she give it.

She slid open the door to the Shimura residence with a bang. "I'm home!" she announced loudly, hoping that the noise would drown out the girl's voice.

"You're quite rude, aren't you?" The girl commented, as Kagura kicked off her boots. "If I had done that at home, the grannies would've had my hide..."

"Welcome back!" said Shinpachi, peeking into the hallway from the living room. From his lack of acknowledgement, it was clear that he could neither see the girl standing beside Kagura nor hear her voice as she continued, "They used to always say, treat your house with respect..."

"You're later than usual, Kagura-chan," said Shinpachi, unknowingly talking over the girl.

"Is Anego back yet?" 

"Not yet."

Kagura went to her room. "Then I am not late, yes?"

"Dinner's in the kitchen," he called after her with a concerned frown.

"Not hungry!" she retorted and shut her door, leaning against it. She couldn't leave now — she had a much bigger problem on her hands that would have to be dealt with before she could even dream of Fiji. 

"Is he your brother?" the girl asked. Kagura groaned loudly and set about unrolling her futon. "I was an only child. I wish I had a brother—"

Kagura violently threw down her blanket. "This is _not_ happening!"

The girl's face pinched at the interruption. She sat next down on the floor next to her. "I can see you're annoyed — But I'm not leaving until you admit you see me."

Kagura fell face first into the futon and covered her head with her pillow. Hopefully with some sleep, the hallucination would eventually disappear. "Go away, go away, go away..."

But against Kagura's wishes, the girl continued to talk late into the night. Kagura had hoped she would've gotten bored and left by the time Shinpachi turned off the house lights, but still she stayed.

"It has to be because of that kiss, yes?" Kagura muttered to herself sometime after the girl asked if she owned any Jump magazines. "I told that guy off and he got mad, so now he's making me see weird things—"

"I was never able to guess what happened in Jump stories," said the girl, not hearing Kagura at all. She was opening and closing Kagura's closet. "And the magazines were always so hard to get my hands on because the grannies didn't approve of me reading them, but they were so good. There was this one Gintaman chapter two years ago that was so shocking—"

Kagura turned over and screamed into her pillow. "JERK!" she hollered, beating her fists into her futon. "Stupid, stupid _jerk!_ "

The girl stopped to look back at her with a wary expression. "Are you alright?"

Kagura refused to hear it. She stood up, roughly gathered her blanket and pillow, and threw open her door to march over to Otae's room. She had had enough.

"I'll make you admit you can see me!" The girl called after her. "I know you can!"

"Over my dead body," Kagura growled, throwing her pillow down in Otae's room. The older girl had yet to come home from work, which was probably for the best — Kagura wasn't sure she could fully explain the reason behind her frustration to Otae without sounding like she was going insane. But moving to the other side of the house soon proved to be futile. Though the little girl was content to stay in Kagura's room for the remainder of the night, she continued to be just as annoying by humming a cheerful song until the first light of dawn, causing Kagura to wake the next morning feeling exhausted and furious. 

" _Now_ she stops singing," Kagura growled, kicking aside her blanket. She had gotten two hours of sleep at most, even less than Otae who had still managed to get in a good rest despite coming home from work only shortly after Kagura had moved. 

She went back into her room to find it devoid of any little girls, but also a complete and total mess. Kagura's personal items were usually scattered wherever was convenient, but now they had been purposefully rearranged and laid out on the floor to spell _'You Can See Me!'_ like a sick ransom note.

Kagura grabbed the bouquet of sunflowers which had been re-purposed as the exclamation mark in the message, and rooted inside until she found the card shoved in-between the leaves.

"Alright, you bastard," she scowled, studying the map printed at the bottom. "If that's how you want to play."

  


* * *

  


Following the address on the card, Kagura proceeded to catch two trains and one bus to the center of Shinjuku. Nobody bothered her during the trip, and eventually, it occurred to her that she hadn't once seen the girl since leaving her in her room last night. It was almost ominous considering her stubborn persistence the night before, but as Kagura drew closer to her destination, she did her best to put the thought out of her mind.

The map led to a tall, roofed gate nestled in between two modern buildings. _A huge wooden structure,_ her father had described. _With a tiled roof and heavy bolted doors._ Kagura remembered walking up and down the street with him almost a hundred times trying to find the supposedly easy to spot gate without luck, and looking upon it now, she couldn't understand how they had missed it. Traditional and imposing, the gate stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of Shinjuku. But despite this, she noticed that the people who walked past it seemed to not notice it was there at all, their eyes sliding past the building beside it to the other as they walked. 

Kagura frowned, reaching out to touch one of the wooden posts. It was definitely real, and unless the elevated courtyard that lay beyond the gate's heavy open doors was a fantastic trick of the light, that was real too. She tucked the card into the pocket of her coat and walked through the gate, feeling strange as she did so.

The courtyard was weathered and old, and looked as if it hadn't been tended to in months, if the dried leaves crunching beneath her shoes was any indication. She walked up the paved stone leading up to the so-called Hotel Del Sol, taking in the building with reluctant curiousity. To her bemusement, it looked to be a wide, converted dojo and was one-storey tall with a wide, gently-curved roof. It was far from the fine hotel that both her father and the man from the train had claimed it was, and Kagura scoffed as she pushed open the building's main doors and walked in.

Expecting to find herself in some sort of hall, she was surprised to instead enter a grand check-in room, surprising the plain-faced receptionist standing behind a long marble counter towards the right.

"Where's the rest of the building?" Kagura asked him rudely, seeing only one elevator door at the opposite end of the room.

The receptionist blinked, as if he was a little shocked to see her. "Excuse me, Miss," he said, and bowed. "We don't usually receive self-check-in customers during the day. How long has it been since you died?"

Kagura balked. "Since I died? Is that a joke?"

The man's eyes went wide, but feeling impatient, she continued, "I just want to talk to the guy who runs this hotel, yes? Where is he?"

The receptionist grew increasingly perplexed. "You mean Okita-san?"

Kagura exhaled through her nose. "Does this Okita-san run the hotel?"

"Er... I suppose he's technically the owner—"

"Then _yes,_ idiot!"

The receptionist squeaked and pointed to the elevator, the door opening as if by command. "Top floor! Please go ahead!"

Kagura left the man cowering behind the counter and stomped in, pressing one of the only three buttons, an arrow going up. The doors closed, and the elevator began to rise. The ride was smooth and quiet but seemed to go on for such a long time that Kagura began to wonder exactly how high up the top floor was. Which was when she remembered—

"This building has only one floor! That _bastard,_ I was tricked!" 

But as she raised a foot to kick down the shiny paneled doors she had come through, the elevator came to a stop and opened not to the check-in room — but a gorgeous hotel lobby.

Huge in size and decadent in beauty, it was the kind of space that befitted a western five-star hotel. Immaculate black-gold pillars supported a high, mirrored ceiling from which hung a giant crystal chandelier seemingly dripping with diamonds. Shards of light bounced across the marble floor and over the framed paintings decorating the cool red walls, complimenting the luxurious couches and low tables set out throughout the room for customer use. It seemed to Kagura that the only element missing from the fashionable and glamorous lobby were actual customers, for the entire space was perfectly empty.

"What the hell?" she mumbled, walking into the lobby. Her boots clicked loudly against the polished floor. "Anybody here?"

"Pardon me," said a voice, causing Kagura to start in surprise. She spun around, coming face to face with a tall man in a neat, black suit. "Can I help you?"

Kagura looked him up and down. Despite his dour expression, the man's question seemed to be genuine, if not a little irritable sounding. He was handsome and sharp, and didn't look like the kind of person she could bully like the receptionist downstairs, so it was with some trepidation that Kagura announced, "I'm the girl your boss has been terrorizing for fourteen years, yes? I want to talk to him."

The man's eyebrows lifted as he assessed her with new interest. "Is that right?" 

"You don't believe me?" 

"It doesn't really matter whether I believe you or not," said the man dryly. "I get the feeling that if I try to turn you away, you'll tear the building apart looking for him."

Kagura raised her chin. "That's right."

The man smirked and inclined his head. "In that case, follow me."

He led her up the grand marble staircase at the opposite end of the lobby, which took them up to the second open floor and to another elevator. Unlike the one that came before it, the one they used now was bigger and much more glamorous, with buttons for floors that went up as high as the 100th level.

Kagura noted that the man pressed the button for the 99th, prompting the doors to shut neatly. The elevator began to rise. 

Out of curiosity, she asked him, "Is the 100th floor a sky bar?"

"How did you know?"

Kagura made a gratified noise. "Just something my Papi said. I thought he was making it up, yes? Because there's no building in Japan with a hundred floors." She regarded the man closely. "What is it with this place? Is it magic? Because from outside there is only one floor—"

The man cut her off. "Save it, kid. I'm not the one who got you into this mess, so I refuse to be the one to give you the tour."

She scowled. "I was just asking."

He glanced at her briefly. "Sorry. But it's not my hotel."

The doors opened. 

They stepped out into a long, ornate hallway, decorated by flower arrangements on either side to match the teal blue painted walls. The man escorted Kagura all the way to a set of white and gold double doors by the end of hall, at which point he gave her a short, but sincere bow.

"Tell the little shit I said good luck," he said, surprising her, and left with something like satisfaction in his expression.

Kagura frowned but shook her head — she'd ask about it later. Turning to face the doors, she took a deep breath and threw them open, revealing a beautiful, spacious office. Like the lobby, the floors were marble and the walls a lovely shade of wine red. Two comfortable chaises were set up towards the right of the room atop a soft fur rug, and heavy drapes hung on either side of the room's tall arched windows, framing the huge mahogany desk directly opposite the doors.

The man from the train lounged behind it in a quality leather chair with his arms crossed and his feet leisurely propped up on the desk. A red sleep mask was pulled over his eyes, which he lifted with a sigh at Kagura's entrance. "You're late," he said, glancing over at her. He raised an eyebrow at her mussed hair and purple eyebags. "Wow. You look like crap."

"No thanks to you, yes?" Kagura snarled. She stomped towards the desk. "I'm here to be fixed! Cure me!"

He scoffed. "Of what?"

"Of _what?!_ " Kagura repeated shrilly. "You infected me when you kissed me you bastard! I started seeing this creepy little girl everywhere and because of that I couldn't sleep! Cure me or I'll — I'll sue!"

The man stood up, amused. "You'll sue a dead man?"

Kagura gaped. "Huh?"

He walked around the desk to meet her. "The kiss was a gift, you know — the ability to see ghosts is an amazing thing. Tons of people would kill to have it."

He said it with a grin, but something in his voice told Kagura that he wasn't joking. She realised none of the hotel staff had been. 

_Ghosts._ Kagura thought. _A dead man._

The man flicked her forehead, snapping her out of it. "I don't accept refunds," he said.

Kagura turned red. Finally, she had reached her breaking point. "Fine," she growled. " _Fine!_ If you won't take it back, then I'll make you!"

She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down, lifting herself up on her toes.

"Hey!" The man protested, leaning back sharply as he pushed her down. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Kagura forced herself forward. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to kiss you, stupid! Take back your dumb gift!"

"No way! That's not how this works! And I'm definitely not going to let you kiss me—"

"You kissed me first, you disgusting little pervert!"

"That doesn't matter! _Hey_ — stop you weirdo!"

Kagura tried to yank him down by his tie. "Stop dodging and _kiss_ me, you—"

He slapped a hand over her mouth and she halted in surprise.

"Most people," said the man, slightly out of breath, "Get to know the other person first."

"You're one to talk, yes?'" Kagura retorted into his palm, but she noticed then that his cheeks were a little red. For the first time, he looked... human. Like a man with a name. 

Okita-san, the receptionist had called him. She wondered if that meant he had a first name.

He frowned at her. "Are you done?"

Kagura glared at him over his hand until he sighed and let her go. She stepped back, crossing her arms protectively over her chest. "Why did you give me this... Gift?"

There was no hesitation in his voice. "You're no use to me if you can't see the clientele."

"Clientele?"

The man rolled his eyes. "Didn't your father tell you anything?" he grouched, returning to the other side of the desk. "That girl you mentioned. Bring her back here and you'll see."

"Why should I?"

He gave her a look. "Because aren't you even a little curious?"

Kagura blinked, taken aback, and he smirked. "I thought so."

She scowled. "You're a sadist," she spat, and marched away. "A super sadist!"

"So I've been told," she heard him call after her. "But it's Okita, actually. Okita Sougo."

Kagura paused by the door. She rolled the name around her tongue. Sougo — It felt right.

"Not that you asked," he added, sounding petty.

She glanced back at him. "No," she snapped. "I didn't."

She slammed the doors shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg, I was hoping to have posted this like three weeks ago and I got. SO distracted ahjfjkdkjkjakjsjk I hope ya'll don't mind me having a little TMI sesh, but I've never been into k-pop. UNTIL LIKE THREE WEEKS AGO DAMN YOU GUYS OMG, SF9 OWNS MY WHOLE ASS WTFWTFWTFWTF- It's very bad. So very very bad. Also I bought Animal Crossing and that has not improved my productivity at ALL, so I am really ever so sorry, plz forgive me D:
> 
> Moving onto the fic though - The problem with Hotel Del Sol is that there's a LOT of foreshadowing. Dialogue has never been so important and it's been a major issue because unlike before, I now have to draft every single conversation in this entire story. For example, Kagura and Sougo will be having an important conversation in one chapter, but then five chapters later, I find a better time for them to have that convo and move the entire exchange asfhjbgdjksfjkkj which means I can't post the chapters I've already written unless I'm absolutely sure I won't be changing it. 
> 
> Actually, I feel like I shouldn't be telling you guys this. I so desperately want the ending to be a surprise but I have a feeling that now everybody's going to be reading too hard into the dialogue omg. Should I delete everything I just wrote? It's 1am. I'm going insane.
> 
> OKAY ANYWAY!!! I'm going to try really hard to finish drafting all the dialogue so that I can start posting more regularly, so stay tuned! If any of you actually read this mess of an end note, you have my endless gratitude - and thank you so much for still reading this fic despite me posting it like a month ago lmfao.
> 
> Love you guys! (as much as I love SF9 haudsifasbgihnafnj)
> 
> \- Arasei


	4. Dark Orchid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My girl Mel's birthday was exactly 12 days ago and I'm super sad I missed it so I'm posting this chapter early as a very lame apology ahjsfdjnkAKLDSNFB I LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY, AND THANK YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH MEEE <3333

Finding a ghost, as opposed to running away from one, turned out to be much harder than Kagura had thought it would be. She'd left for Kabukicho furious, but confident that she'd be back within the hour with the little girl in tow; but after checking the Shimura residence from top to bottom and most, if not all, of the neighboring streets, she still had found not even a hint of the girl's existence by sundown.

"He could just be lying," Kagura muttered to herself, peeking down an alley. The umbrella she'd brought from home swung uselessly in her hand. "Maybe the girl _was_ just a hallucination and he is just egging me on, yes?"

But deep down, she knew it wasn't true. She remembered how nostalgic the girl had sounded when talking of her life and interests, and of the sadness she had worn like a second skin — the longing in her voice was not something Kagura could have easily made up.

Less easy to believe was what the man — _Sougo_ — had said about himself. 'A dead man,' he had claimed, but the difference between him and the little girl could not be more clear. Thinking back, the latter had had a sort of haziness to her, as if she were only an impression of a human being. Sougo, on the other hand, was solid in both looks and form; not once had there been an instance where Kagura's hand had accidentally passed through his body, and there had also been a warmth to him that the little girl simply hadn't possessed. 

The thought continued to linger in Kagura's mind as she turned right at a street corner, so when she spotted a man walking up the other end of the other end of the road, she was quicker than usual in noticing a similar strangeness about him to the girl from the night before, an almost identical afterimage-like quality to his person. 

The man seemed to be searching for something and had yet to notice Kagura, mumbling to himself as he peered into narrow alleyways before moving on with a frustrated expression, much like how Kagura had been doing. He walked easily and without pain, either not noticing or not caring for the dagger stuck deep into his chest. 

Kagura's first instinct was to turn right around and walk away — she’d already gotten herself mixed up with too many ghosts for her liking; but the sun had long since set and she had already scoured the entirety of Kabukicho to no avail. Information on how to find one of their kind would not be unwelcome thing in the world at this point, so it was with the greatest reluctance that Kagura made up her mind.

She opened her mouth and called out to him. "Hey—"

A force yanked her back into a side alley. "Ssh!" somebody hissed, cutting off Kagura's shriek. "Are you insane?!"

Kagura knew that voice — she had been subjected to it all of the previous night, after all. She lowered her raised umbrella in an affronted kind of daze. "It's you!"

The little girl had found her instead. Not waiting for an answer, she seized Kagura's arm and began to drag her down the little road at a brisk run, her hand feeling like a bracelet of wind wrapped around her wrist.

"Wait!" Kagura protested, attempting to dig her heels into the ground. "You can't just suddenly show up and lead me down creepy alleys, yes? Where have you been—"

"Just run!" the girl pleaded, casting a nervous glance back at the alley entrance. "That guy is bad news!"

There was no mistaking the fear in her tone, and startled by it, Kagura stopped fighting the girl's momentum, letting herself be pulled into the next street over and into a twisting maze of suburban back alleys, until finally, they reached an out-of-the-way road far from prying eyes.

The girl let go of Kagura's arm, and they stopped by a lamppost so that she could regain her breath. The sun had long since gone down, and the streetlight was bright above their heads. "Tell me everything," said Kagura, pressing a hand over her heart. It was beating hard from the exertion of running. "Where were you today?"

The girl's expression was stiff. "We ghosts can't be outside when the sun comes up. I have to hide during the day." 

Surprised by the look her face, Kagura unconciously straightened. "Are you okay?"

She turned away. "It's nothing. I just... I hate it. I hate the dark. When they took me, it was always dark."

Kagura was overcome with a sense of foreboding. "When who took you?"

The girl curled into herself, squatting by the base of the lamppost. Kagura bent down as well. "Hey," she prodded gently. "You can tell me if you want to, yes?"

Her companion sighed, keeping her eyes on her feet. "There's not much to tell," she mumbled. "I come from a shrine that's famous for its prosperity. Because of some lucky accident, many people thought that I was the reason behind it all and the grannies encouraged it, thinking it would bring in more visitors. People from all over the world would visit to pray — but a neighboring temple grew jealous, and a group of men were hired to steal me away."

Kagura's gaze flicked to the girl's bloodied forehead.

"The man from the other street was one of them," the girl continued, confirming her suspicion. "He had a knife, and I thought if I was quick enough... I don't know. I was stupid. I should never have tried to escape."

Kagura frowned. "Would you do it differently if you could?"

The girl scowled at the ground. "If I could wish for anything it would be to never have been born into that stupid life."

Kagura was silent for long moment. "I'm sorry," she said eventually. "I can't imagine what that must be like."

The girl sniffed, saying nothing. Kagura bit her lip. "Y'know," she began carefully, "Yesterday, I met somebody. He is rude to others, sleeps at his table, and likes to buy flowers and harass people with them."

Her companion looked up in confusion, but Kagura continued hastily, "My point is, that he is a ghost, yes? But he does stuff like a normal person. So even if it is a little late, can't you live a normal life now?"

The girl frowned. "You mean as a ghost?"

"Sure. What is stopping you?"

"Other than me being dead?" the girl replied dryly, but she considered it. "Do you think I could still read Jump magazines?"

Kagura paused. "Well, maybe get somebody else to buy the magazines for you," she advised with a grin, and stuck out her hand. "I'm Kagura."

For the first time, the girl gave a small, genuine smile. Her hand passed through Kagura's own as she tried to shake it, but it was the gesture that counted. "Okuni."

"Nice to meet you, Okuni. I can't help you with your dead problem, but if you want somewhere to hang out during the day, I know a place, yes?"

"Is it bright?" she asked hopefully.

Kagura thought of the Hotel Del Sol's crystal chandelier. "Definitely."

But before she could say anything else, the light above them flickered violently without warning and shut off, casting them in abrupt shadow.

_"Found you."_

They spun around. Further along the street, a shape formed out of the darkness of the night, a knife flashing menacingly from its chest. 

"I've been looking for you everywhere you little bitch," hissed the man from before.

Kagura tried to force Okuni behind her, but realising she could not grab her shoulders, stepped in front of her instead. "Stay away if you know what is good for you!'

The ghost paused in his advance. "A human who can see," he said with mild surprise. “Now that’s new.”

Kagura began to slowly back away, feeling Okuni trying to clutch her shirt. "You don’t want to know what else I can do, yes?" she snapped, attempting to stall for time. She could fight living beings with ease but recalled a little too late that she knew nothing about starting fights with ghosts. 

His eyes narrowed. "If anything, you should be on my side. You think I was born with a knife in my chest?" Kagura could not help but follow his gesture at the handle sticking out from between his ribs, and he grinned, showing sharp white teeth. "You're protecting a murderer."

Okuni made a small noise at this, but Kagura regained her composure and scoffed. "You kidnapped her! I think it is only fair that she got to kill you, yes? So what if we all just forget about it and go home?"

The ghost's face twisted and churned into a formless shadow as he sneered. "Thanks to that brat, I have no home — and I won't rest until I obliterate every part of her from this world. Will you continue to stand in my way?"

Kagura raised her chin. Her Papi had once told her, 'if you're going to fight, at least pick a battle that you know you'll win.' She made a mental apology to him as she lifted her umbrella. "Do your worst."

The ghost opened his jaw inhumanely wide. " _Gladly,_ " he snarled, and surged forward. 

She had barely moved when a blinding flash of light suddenly filled the street, causing her to instinctively shield her face. "What is this?!" Okuni yelped from behind her.

Kagura forced her eyes open, only for her mouth to drop at the sight before her. A white, transparent barrier had materialized around them, as wide as the street and brighter than the sun. Outside of it, the ghost raged and punched the surface to no avail, cursing at the man now standing in between him and his prey.

"You!" she gaped.

"Me," said Sougo. He held a glowing katana half-raised in the air in a defensive position, and was seemingly responsible for the barrier around them. "You ready?"

"For _what?_ What do we do?!"

She noticed that the sword was vibrating violently in Sougo's hands. It looked as if it was taking everything he had just to keep up the wall. The ghost threw himself against it and Sougo grit his teeth. "We run."

He broke his stance, and with effort, swung his sword upward, causing the barrier to explode outward and send the ghost flying far back down the street.

He grabbed Kagura's hand and hauled her in the opposite direction. "Move!"

Behind them, the ghost made a terrible noise of fury and gave chase.

"That's it?!" Kagura yelled as they sprinted down the street. "You have that huge ass sword, yes?! Fight him!"

"It's not my job, idiot! I'm not allowed!"

 _"Allowed?!"_ she screeched.

"Kagura-nee!" Okuni shouted from beside her.

Kagura realised too late what the girl was warning her of and looked up only to see a lamppost suddenly burst over their heads. Sougo yanked her out of the way just in time, but their combined momentum sent her colliding into his chest, and the both of them tripped and crashed painfully to the ground.

Not wasting the opportunity, the ghost rapidly caught up with them and reached out a claw-like hand with a cackle of glee, but within a meter of his grasp, Sougo managed to swing his katana to block and successfully cast another barrier against which the ghost bounced off of with a bang.

"C'mon!" Okuni shouted.

From the other side, the ghost howled with fury, and Kagura met Sougo's eye. They both knew that there was no outrunning him. He sighed and lowered his sword, pushing himself off the ground to stand. "Screw it."

Kagura scrambled back as the barrier dissolved. "Get behind me," she told Okuni.

"You bastard!" the ghost screamed, huddling in the shadows further down the street. "Who the fuck do you think you are?!"

Sougo shifted into a stance. "I'm losing my patience," he said lowly, his fingers curling over the balanced handle of his katana. "If the higher ups still consider you a human life, I'll just have to pay the price. So, do me a favour and die."

With a roar, the ghost charged forward and Sougo flew to meet him in the middle. He swung his sword — but before the blade could reach him, a sound like a clap of thunder echoed loudly across the street, and the katana sliced through empty air.

Kagura blinked at the now clear road. The ghost was gone; and in the vacant space where he once stood, a black feather floated gently down to the ground. She looked to Sougo. "Did you do that?"

He sheathed his sword with a flick. "No," he growled, and straightened. "Come out, crow."

A man emerged from the shadows. He wore a simple white kimono that matched the shine of his silver hair, the glow of the colour making him appear ethereal in the dark. His expression was casual and bored, as if an event like this were an everyday occurrence.

"That was close," he drawled. "You know what would've happened if you had struck."

"It was self-defence," Sougo snapped. "Against a dark spirit, I might add."

"Except he wasn’t one," said the man coolly. "You know the rules."

"Do _you?_ " countered Sougo and walked back to Kagura who was getting to her feet. "Next time, do your job before I have to."

The man sighed. "We can't be everywhere at once, you know," he said, and bent to pick up the feather. In a more petulant voice, he added, "People should really stop dying on Saturdays. At this rate, I’ll never be able to catch up with the latest issue of Jump."

Sougo scoffed and dragged Kagura away. When she looked back, the man was already gone. "Who was that?"

He scowled. "A pain in the ass."

"He reads Jump," said Okuni, looking somewhat pleased. She looked to Sougo and bowed her head. "Thank you for saving us. Who are you?" 

He glanced at her. "A hotel owner."

"A really annoying one," Kagura added. She yawned very suddenly.

Okuni tried to pat her arm. "Are you okay, Kagura-nee? Were you hurt?”

"Just tired," Kagura replied. "I will be fine." But as soon as she said it, she stumbled over her feet and almost tripped.

Sougo caught her arm. "Hey! What the hell happened to you?"

"She didn't sleep last night," said Okuni with guilt. “It was my fault."

"It sure was," Kagura grumbled, closing her eyes. She felt a little lightheaded. "Just let me sit down for a few minutes, yes?"

"No way," said Sougo. "The kid needs to get to the hotel before sundown, and at this rate, we're not going to make it."

Kagura felt him move in front of her to sling her arms over his shoulders. She made a noise of protest as he hooked his hands under her knees and hoisted her over his back. "Hey!"

He began to walk. "You're complaining? After almost falling flat on your face?"

She frowned but had to admit that the rise and fall of his steps was somewhat soothing. She let the tension ease from her grip. "...No."

Okuni skipped ahead. "It's okay, Kagura-nee. I'll wake you up when we get there."

Kagura thought of arguing with the arrangement, but only barely managed to stifle her next yawn and reluctantly decided against it. "You had better," she told her instead. "I want to make sure you're not being scammed."

Sougo bounced her once on his back. " _Hey._ We're a registered hotel, you know?"

"Sure," Kagura mumbled, feeling her eyes getting heavy. If Sougo said something to defend himself after, she didn't hear it — in the next moment, she had fallen asleep to the rhythm of his walk and the familiar scent of his cravat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like, hate writing action scenes which sucks because like fifty percent of this fic is action ahahaha whoops :D
> 
> GINTOKI AT THE END THOUGH!!! I was so excited to write him you have no idea aufdgbhnjabgnajh literally all of his scenes in this fic are so great and I can't wait to get to those chapters! Which reminds me, I was thinking I could start occasionally posting sentences and dialogue stuff that I've written already for the fic just to keep up the hype. I wouldn't be revealing anything major, it would be just to give you guys fun little sneak peeks to look forward to as the story progresses, since I have a feeling that this is gonna be a long one. If a lot of you are interested then I'll set up a tag on tumblr and start making posts so let me know what you think in the comments!
> 
> I hope you guys are healthy and doing okay! I know at some point this virus thing will blow over, but please continue to take care of yourselves and stay safe!
> 
> Thanks for reading!! (FINAL SHOUTOUT TO MEL ILY)
> 
> Love, Arasei <3


	5. Marigold

That night, Kagura dreamt of a field of gold.

She stood in a valley of yellow flowers that were as tall as her chest, their flat heads waving gently back and forth around her. She ought to have been able to hear the rustle of their petals, but the world was muted, like somebody had plugged cotton in her ears. Despite this, however, it was a beautiful day; and underneath a pure swath of blue sky, she found herself looking up into familiar crimson-coloured eyes.

The man standing before her had long hair tied back into a ponytail that drifted carelessly behind him in the slow, sweet wind. He held her cheek in his warm hand, his mouth shaping words that Kagura couldn't hear. She must have said something in reply, for he unexpectedly began to laugh, the surprised and genuine kind that caused her stomach swoop at the sight.

And suddenly, almost as if somebody had just turned up the volume of the world, Kagura could hear.

The man smiled. "Ka-"

"-gura. Dammit, China, wake up."

She opened her eyes.

Sougo hovered over her, his eyebrows furrowed. Other than his much shorter hair and annoyed expression, there was not much difference between her dream-version of him and the him of reality.

"Oh," Kagura groaned. "It's you."

"Is that what you say to the person who lugged your gorilla ass all the way over here?" He leaned back, allowing Kagura to sit up.

"It would've been an honor, yes?" she snapped, rubbing her eyes. She looked around, seeing that they were in a luxurious bedroom. Warm golden light came in through tall arched windows, shining across polished marble floor and catching in the decal of the room's gold embossed furniture. Taken aback by the fine decor, it took longer than usual for Kagura to realise that she had not woken up in her familiar futon, but instead, a sumptuous four poster bed. She gasped, quickly checking to make sure she was wearing all her clothes.

Sougo rolled his eyes. "You're not my type, pig, relax. I didn't taint whatever backwards honor you have."

"You made me sleep in your bed!" Kagura accused, ignoring the fact that she was completely dressed. "What did you do to me, pervert?!"

He scoffed and got up. "I knew I should've thrown you onto the couch." He opened the tall double doors across the bed and left the room. Kagura hastily disentangled herself from the bedding's silk sheets and followed Sougo out into the same office she had barged into yesterday, where he was currently rummaging through a set of drawers in his desk. "You were asleep for almost the whole day. It's four now."

"In the afternoon?" Kagura gaped. 

He sighed. "I had blessed silence for a full eighteen hours before Kondou-san insisted that I wake you up." He pulled out a thin manila folder and straightened. "Well," he said, "It was on the way." He looked her up and down critically. "You hungry?"

As if on cue, Kagura's stomach grumbled, and he smirked, leading the way out of the office. "C'mon. I know a place."

He took her down to the still-empty main lobby, where the man in the suit who had first taken Kagura to Sougo's office greeted them at the bottom step of the grand staircase. "You're awake," he noted to Kagura. "Sleep well?"

She scowled. "I was violated."

"You weren't," Sougo snapped. He slapped his folder into the man's chest. "Here, Hijibaka-san. Take care of our customer instead of harassing your fellow co-worker."

The man dubbed Hijibaka raised an eyebrow at Kagura. "She agreed to work?"

"I didn't!" she insisted, rounding on Sougo. "I have told you that I refuse to work here!"

He ignored her and walked away. "This way, China."

Kagura stomped after him into the hotel's first elevator. "You are the one doing all the harassing, yes?" she accused, as Sougo pressed the button for downstairs. "You _can't_ make me work!"

"We'll see," was all her companion said in reply, and irritated, Kagura turned away in mutinous silence.

Her resolution, however, was short-lived. The elevator soon came to a stop, but having expected to exit out into the reception area, Kagura was surprised to see not the long marble counter, but rather a well-lit warehouse of glittering cars.

She stared at the sight before her. "What the fuck?"

Sougo sauntered out of the elevator. "I'm thinking the Ferrari today."

"What the hell is this, yes?"

"What does it look like, idiot? A garage, obviously."

"Obviously?" Kagura repeated, following him. The warehouse was huge, and there were cars as far as the eye could see. "This place is a car factory! And you have a Ferrari?"

He looked back at her smugly. "I have three."

"Why? Do you drive in all three at once? Not even a moron would do such a thing, yes?"

"Three different colors for three different occasions," he replied. As if to prove this, he stopped at a set of three cars, colored black, red, and blue respectively.

He gave her an appraising glance and seemed to come to a decision, opening the door of the red car. "You coming?"

Kagura scowled. The pretentiousness of it all went against her better morals, but she could not pretend that she wasn't at all curious to know what it would feel like to sit inside such luxury, so it was with muttering pretence that she acquiesced. She knew that Sougo wasn't fooled, but he merely started the car with a smirk, and they drove out of the garage without further argument.

They ended up in an out of the way ramen restaurant somewhere in the outskirts of Shinjuku that Kagura had yet to visit. It was a small shop, manned by only one woman with whom Sougo struck casual conversation with as they ordered. Kagura's interrogation began only after the arrival of their food, as she took to eating with the viciousness of somebody that had been asleep for eighteen hours. 

"So," she said eventually, her mouth full of noodles. "You run a hotel for ghosts."

"That's disgusting," said Sougo, his expression a mix of impressed and scandalised as he watched her slurp down her third filling of ramen. "Do you stop to breathe?"

Kagura smacked her lips. "Answer the question."

"That wasn't a question, that was a statement."

"Answer the statement."

He sighed. "I run a hotel for ghosts."

Kagura was satisfied, and she started on her fourth ramen bowl. "What's going to happen to Okuni? Don't think that just because I'm using you for free food that I will let you do whatever you want, yes?"

Sougo spun a spoon back and forth in the bowl of soup before him. "We're not a torture chamber," he told her reproachfully. "The Hotel Del Sol is a professional establishment that helps our customers along to the afterlife."

Kagura's nose wrinkled. "By doing what?"

He looked at her seriously. "What do you do at a hotel?"

She considered it. "Steal the little soaps?"

Sougo rolled his eyes. "Other than that."

"Eat food?"

"And?"

"Swim in pools?"

"Jesus Christ - You _relax,_ China."

Kagura's lips pursed together. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Sougo shook his head, leaning back into the seat of the booth. "What do you think? Not everybody leads a happy life, you know. Thousands of humans die without getting to do everything they wanted to do; it's our job to fulfill our customers wishes until they're ready to move on."

He said it easily, as if that was all there was to it. Kagura gave him a dirty look. "Do you do this before or after you make them sell their daughters?"

Her companion paused, a sense of understanding coming over him. “Ah. So that’s why you were worried.”

"I have good reason to be, yes?”

Sougo smirked, appearing wholly unconcerned. “You can relax. I doubt a girl as young as her has a brat to trade."

“That is not an answer,” Kagura argued.

Though Sougo’s expression was still light, the mirth in his voice had all but disappeared when he next spoke. "Your dad was a special case," he told her eventually. "He wanted to live, so he made a choice - his life for yours.” In a tone no more pitying than before, he added, “For better or for worse, it's a contract that has to be fulfilled."

Kagura was petulant at the turn of conversation. "You can stick your contract. I'm not working for an annoying dead man, yes?"

Sougo frowned at this. "I'm not dead." 

She gaped at him. "You said yourself that you were!"

"I did?" 

"Are you not?"

He paused, looking out the window. "’Dead’ is an oversimplification,” he said, almost to himself. “I'm just... Here."

Kagura fell silent as she took in the man across from her. In the hazy afternoon light of the setting sun, the world seemed to quieten and still, as she realised in that hidden away ramen shop, there was actually not much difference between Sougo and Okuni at all. It was in the solemnity of their expression, in how they looked as if they were constantly longing for something they could no longer have. Instinctively, Kagura knew that it could not be understood by somebody who had yet to realise how precious life was only after it was gone, and suddenly, she felt inexplicably small.

She chewed her lip. "Hey…" she began, but trailed off, unsure of how to finish her sentence. The moment passed, and Sougo looked back at her. 

"I bet I can change your mind about working," he said, without any trace of his staid expression from before. For a brief second, Kagura thought she might’ve imagined it, but then she noticed that there was something almost purposeful in the set of his mouth, and she realised what he was doing. Frowning, she let him change the subject. "How?"

"Finish eating first," he suggested. "It's going to blow your mind."

  


* * *

  


"A tour?" said Kagura, aghast as they stood in the elevator travelling up to the hotel lobby. "That is what you made me come back for?"

"It's going to be a fucking amazing tour."

"Doubt it," Kagura muttered, but Sougo was confident. "You've never been here at night," he told her.

She scoffed. "That does not matter."

The elevator dinged. "Trust me," he said, and the doors opened. "It matters."

Kagura took in the scene before her in awe as they stepped out into the glittering lobby of the Hotel Del Sol, but now open for business. The space was crowded with customers, all of them lively and fresh-faced ghosts going about their night as they were attended to by courteous and smartly dressed staff. If one wasn't looking closely, the hotel could easily pass for an everyday Shinjuku five-star establishment, and not one run by the supernatural for the supernatural.

"Holy shit," said Kagura, and Sougo grinned.

"Still don't want that tour?" he teased.

"Kagura-nee!" shouted a voice as they walked further into the room. Okuni ran up to them, excitedly waving a Jump magazine. "You're okay!"

"Uh, yeah," Kagura spoke, a little stunned as the girl came to a stop before them. She didn't know whether to be more surprised at her sudden appearance or at the happiness of her expression. "I'm fine. What about you? Has anybody offered you weird shady deals?"

_"Hey."_

"Nope," said Okuni, holding up her magazine. “They said I could stay until I'm ready to go, and I've got manga to read all day long. It’s free, too."

Kagura cast Sougo a look and he told her, “We have a library. A lot of people happen to want to read manga before they go.”

Her face pinched at his obvious smirk and she looked back at Okuni. "Well… Okay. If someone says something mean to you, tell me and I'll punch them, yes?"

Okuni nodded seriously, and asked, "But you'll visit me, won't you?"

Kagura attempted to pat her head, but of course, her hand merely went through. "Sure thing."

The little girl grinned and ran off. "I'll hold you to that!"

Kagura watched her go, expecting Sougo to make a snide remark, but once Okuni disappeared from their view, he only said, "I'll take you to the pool," and led her through the lobby. He pointed out various places of interest as he did so, showing her the bar and kitchens as they passed them. Not once did he make fun of her initial distrust, and while Kagura appreciated the lack of immediate sarcasm, she wondered whether Sougo was merely biding his time and decided to change the subject before he could bring it up. 

"So," she began innocently, "This pool. Is it really as wide as a beach?"

"Is that what your Dad said?" mused Sougo. "He must have been seeing things."

Kagura could not help but feel a little disappointed as they reached two double doors with a sign for the pool on the side. "I thought a magic hotel would have had a cooler pool."

"I didn't say it wasn't cool," said Sougo, pushing open the doors. "Just that his description was... lacking."

Kagura's mouth dropped. She could see what he meant - it wasn't that the pool was as wide as a beach, but rather, it was an _actual_ beach. Despite it being almost 7 p.m. outside, the landscape was bright and sunny, complemented by golden sands and a big blue sea. Guests were warming themselves on lounge chairs set up underneath huge colorful umbrellas, and the shore went on endlessly at both sides, fading into the horizon.

Sougo looked up at the sun. "Before you ask; no. We're not in Japan." 

"Then is this fake?" asked Kagura, testing the sand with her boot. It certainly felt real, and the air was thick with the familiar scent of salt brine and the sea.

"Not fake," he corrected. "Just not on the same plane of existence."

She frowned back at him. "That makes no sense, yes?"

He gestured back into the hallway. "Then I'll show you something else."

Kagura was reluctant to leave the pleasant and cheerful scenery, but she followed Sougo back into the hotel and to the grand elevator, where he pressed the button for the 100th floor.

The doors closed. "Think of the world like a coin," said Sougo, leaning against the elevator wall. "The real world is on one side - the spirit world is on the other. They exist in the same place but can't interact with each other. Does that make one side fake?"

Kagura's head spun. "That is too many sides."

“There’s _two._ ”

“It is one too many, yes?”

He sighed. "I shouldn't have expected a piggy to be able to get it."

"Oi, you little-"

He held her back with a hand against her forehead. "Watch," he said, as the elevator came to a stop at an elegant, classy restaurant - empty, but ready for customers. Across the room, tall double doors led to a wide spacious balcony, affording the hotel guests a world class view of Japan’s glittering night sky.

Kagura vaguely smacked away Sougo’s hand, walking into the restaurant with awe. 

The view from the balcony was even more spectacular with the city glowing beneath her, an urban maze of night time traffic and twinkling lights. She leaned over the railing, delighted by the landscape made tiny by their height.

Sougo came up behind her.

"So what would happen if I fell from here?" Kagura asked him. 

"Did you want to test it out?"

"Are you offering to throw yourself off the balcony?" She asked sweetly.

Sougo grinned, turning to look over the city. "Like I said,” he told her, “Two sides of the same coin. Just because it isn't real on one side, it doesn't mean it isn't real on the other."

A thought occurred to her then, and she looked at him carefully. "So which side are _you_ on?"

He didn't glance her way, but Kagura saw that his strange expression from before had returned. "Neither," he replied softly.

They fell silent, watching from one hundred floors up in the sky as the people of Tokyo went about their night, going home from work, or going out with friends. Had Kagura been born any other girl, she would’ve been one of them, someone with no idea that there was another side to her coin. In this way, she wondered how often Sougo had watched people from the stars and wished to have been one of them.

Before Kagura could stop to think about it, she had raised her hand to press gently over the left side of his chest. Under her palm, she could feel the warmth of his skin underneath his cotton shirt, and the steady beat of his heart. His eyes widened.

"You feel pretty real to me," she said bravely. Sougo stared, not saying anything, and embarrassed, Kagura added quickly, "Real annoying."

For a moment, Kagura thought he would make a derisive comment or even push her away, and she braced herself for the embarrassment. But to her great surprise, he laughed; real and loud, it was if the act had been startled out of him, but it made a wonder of a difference to his face, making him seem younger and kinder - and for a moment, like the man from her dream.

Kagura's face reddened, and she snatched her hand away. "There is no way I could stand working for you, yes?"

His laughter lightened into a chuckle, but the softness of his expression remained as he asked, "What about the benefits?"

"I don't care about your stupid beach pool."

“Or the all you can eat buffet?" At Kagura's pause, he added, "Completely free for the staff, too."

Kagura was silent for a long moment. She crossed her arms. "I want 10000 yen every hour."

"3000."

" _9000._ "

He rolled his eyes. "You get 5000 and that's it."

She pouted and turned away. "Fine. But I am not accepting this job just because of the money and food, yes? Only because there is no point in running. You are the type to be desperate enough to chase a poor maiden like me around the world."

"A poor maiden?" He repeated incredulously, pretending to look around. "I don't see one anywhere."

She tried to step on his foot but he spun away with a grin and walked back into the restaurant. "You're right, though," he called over his shoulder. "You're way too much fun to give up."

"Creep!" Kagura yelled after him. He stepped into the elevator and gave her a mocking salute as the doors closed, leaving her alone on the balcony.

Kagura leaned over the railing once again and sighed, lifting up the hand she had held over his heart. It still tingled at the memory of his warmth and she groaned as she let her wrist drop. 

"That was dumb," she muttered to the sky, but as expected, there was no response. The stars continued to shine quietly above her head, and as they did so, Kagura did her best to convince herself that she chose the job for the hotel buffet and not the mysterious owner’s smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOooohhh we have some setup! Not much happened in this chapter but I've been writing ahead and guys. Things are getting GOOD I'm so excited!!
> 
> I'm so sorry that I never ended up posting anything on tumblr, but I made the writing tag a few weeks ago, so as soon as I post this, I'm going to be putting up some excerpts from future chapters! You can find them at this link: https://arasei.tumblr.com/araseiwrites
> 
> Thanks again for being so patient. I know I take so long to update, and I could give you so many excuses but lbr, the truth is that I've just been really obsessed with pimping out my town in Animal Crossing and it's getting kinda out of hand lol. Anyway, I'm gonna relax on the terraforming a bit and get back into writing because the next chapter brings in a new character and I'm SUPER eager to write his part! You guys are not going to be able to guess who it is, I swear, but if you want to have a go in the comments, be my guest ;D
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> \- Arasei <3


	6. Venetian Blue

The argument ensuing outside Sougo's office had been going on for quite some time now, and Kagura was growing quickly sick of it.

"But I don't want to go in first!" a muffled voice insisted for the fifth time in a row.

"For the love of God, Yamazaki, she's not going to bite your head off—"

"No, no, she will! You weren't there, Hijikata-san! You didn't see her _eyes…_ "

A booming laugh interrupted the exchange. "You're overacting, Zaki. I'm sure she's a lovely girl."

Kagura decided that she had been insulted enough for one night. She stood up and marched to the double doors, throwing them open with dramatic flourish. "No," she said sweetly. "She is not."

Of the three men before her, the shortest made an audible noise of horror at her appearance and hid quickly behind his two associates. Kagura instantly recognized him as the nervous receptionist from downstairs. 

"Honestly, Zaki," scoffed one of the other men. "You've served ghosts without _heads._ I would've thought that a human would be significantly less terrifying." He was another familiar face amongst the hotel staff, but as Kagura processed what his colleague had called him, her mouth pursed into a bemused frown. "I thought your name was Hijibaka," she accused, at which the man in question made a noise of affront.

The owner of the booming voice laughed loudly at this, and Kagura cast a glance at their other companion, a tall, hulking man with shiny white teeth and a hairy chin. "That's just Sougo having a bit of fun," said the man good-naturedly, and clapped Hijibaka on the shoulder. "This is Hijikata Toshirou, our General Manager. I'm Kondou Isao," he said of himself, before nudging the cowering receptionist forward, "And this is Yamazaki Sagaru. We work closely with Sougo and thought we should introduce ourselves to the new Human Affairs Manager."

Kagura blinked, looking behind her. "There's no-one here but me," she told them. "You've got the wrong room, yes?"

They stared at her for a moment, as if waiting for the punchline of a joke. When none came, Kondou began to laugh nervously. "Ah, but... You were hired as the Human Affairs Manager, weren't you? Miss…"

“Kagura,” she said. It was her turn to be taken aback. "And I was?"

Kondou glanced at Hijikata with an expression of mild alarm, but the other man was nonplussed. "You know how Sougo is," he said. To Kagura, he asked, "Can we come in?"

She looked between them a moment longer, but shrugged and stood aside to let the three men in. They entered the office as if it were a place they often frequented, and it became clear to Kagura that they must have been well-acquainted with the room, and by extension, Sougo. Even Yamazaki, who continued to give Kagura a wide berth, seemed to be more at ease inside. 

"Love what you've done with the place," Hijikata said dryly as he examined the wall behind Sougo's desk, which housed numerous framed photographs of the irritating hotel owner himself. The pictures looked as if they had been taken over multiple centuries, and in each one, Sougo was standing before the Hotel Del Sol dressed in era-centric garb dating as far back as the black and white age of the 1800's. Every image of him before that century was a painting or sketch, the oldest being a wood-block print that depicted him in samurai-like armor. Either Sougo was an avid cosplayer, or he had been on Earth for a very long time.

Hijikata, however, was not referencing the photos, but rather Kagura's personal handiwork on them — she had drawn a thick curly mustache over each of Sougo's faces in heavy, permanent marker, effectively spoiling the handsomeness of his features in every image. "Thanks," she grinned, looking over the wall once again with pride.

Yamazaki turned away from the photographs with a shiver. "He's going to be _so_ mad."

Kagura waved an unbothered hand. She had yet to see Sougo truly upset, but she highly doubted he would do anything extremely terrible in retaliation. "If he was going to get mad, he shouldn't have left me alone in his office, yes?"

Kondou took a seat on one of the chaises. "Ah, well; It can't be helped. The ghost of room 186 is a handful — only Sougo can control her, really."

Kagura recalled the strange tremor that had shaken the hotel only twenty minutes prior. Sougo had gone to investigate and had left Kagura to her own devices, leading up to the conversation she was having now. She sat down as well. "Did that ghost cause the weird earthquake earlier?"

Hijikata shrugged as he seated himself beside Kondou. "It happens occasionally."

Kagura frowned. "I am not going to be dealing with these kinds of spirits, yes?"

"Of course not," Kondou assured her. "Every few decades, Sougo will bring in a human to work, but only to handle affairs in the living world. Tax office inquiries, errands for ghosts, that sort of thing."

"Why would I need to do errands?"

Hijikata was the one to explain. "At the Hotel Del Sol, we help spirits pass on to the afterlife by fulfilling the wishes they might have had on Earth, but were never able to accomplish," he told her clearly. "If they desired to lounge on a private beach, we would be able to arrange that. But if, for example, they wanted to leave a letter behind for their grandchild, you would be the one to deliver it in the human world."

She cocked her head. "How come you guys can't do that?"

Yamazaki, perched on the arm of the chaise beside Kondou, spoke up. "We can only go out at night, and there's only so much we can do during that time."

Kagura remembered Okuni's words from the night before. _We ghosts can't be outside when the sun comes up._

"Oh," she said, the realisation dawning on her. "So, you guys are dead too."

"That's one way of putting it," said Hijikata with a wry expression.

Kondou grinned. "It's true. Ghosts who come as guests but wish to extend their stay at the Hotel Del Sol go on to be employed as staff until they wish to pass on. I've been working as the bartender here for 500 years."

Hijikata made a face. "I've been here for 200."

"60," volunteered Yamazaki. "I died in the Pacific War."

Kagura stared at them. "Huh."

Kondou slung an arm around Yamazaki's shoulders. "We three have been here the longest," he said warmly. "The rest of the staff usually don't stay beyond five to ten years."

"Then why do you guys stay?"

They all looked at each other. "We... have our reasons," said Kondou eventually.

Kagura pondered over this. "Then is Sougo the same? Is he also a ghost who hasn't passed?"

"Okita-san is different," began Yamazaki, not noticing how the other two men suddenly went rigid. "He's serving out a punishment, and he's been here longer than any of us combined—"

"But that's not any of our business," Hijikata interrupted, sending Yamazaki a cold look. He stood up abruptly. "Apologies, Kagura-san, but we've left our posts for long enough."

"Peak hour at the bar is going to begin soon," Kondou concurred, also standing. Yamazaki got the hint and scrambled to his feet. "Ah, right! Sorry! The reception desk must be so busy as well..."

There was a definite suspicious air to their attitude, and Kagura narrowed her eyes. Seeing this, Kondou gave her an apologetic bow. "Sorry to leave you so suddenly, Kagura-chan, but we really did only come to give our greetings. Hopefully, we can arrange a get-together later on and better get to know each other."

Hijikata also gave a short bow. "Good day, Kagura-san," he said. "And good luck."

They departed the office and Kagura was left alone once more. "Weird," she muttered aloud. She knew that had not imagined their sudden odd behaviour.

Kagura frowned, thinking of Yamazaki's remark about Sougo's punishment. What was she supposed to think of that? 

She looked to the wall of photographs and huffed, remembering the rest of the conversation. "Errands, huh?" she considered. "I can do that at least."

  


* * *

  


"Hi, Kagura-chan," called Shinpachi from inside the house. "You’re late again."

Kagura toed off her boots. "I'm not," she shot back, walking into the living room where Shinpachi was sat at their dining table peeling oranges. "If I can beat Anego, then I am not late, yes?"

"Actually," came Otae's voice, surprising Kagura, "You didn't beat me this time." The older girl came out from the kitchen carrying a plate of charred food. She took a seat beside her brother at the table. "Here — I made dinner."

Kagura's nose scrunched at the sight. "Uh, sorry Anego. I already ate."

Otae’s lips pulled together into a childish pout. "Kagura-chan, you would tell me if you were seeing somebody, weren’t you?"

Shinpachi choked on an orange slice. "What?"

Kagura groaned. "Anego—"

"But you are, aren't you?" Otae pressed. "Lately, you come having already eaten dinner, and you’ve been staying out late more and more often..."

"My new boss bought me food tonight," Kagura assured. "As he should have, yes? The stupid sadist said I had to fill out an employment contract before going home, but then he ran off to do something that took almost an hour—"

"Hold on," Shinpachi interrupted with wide eyes. "Your _new_ boss?"

"You have a new job?" Otae gasped.

Kagura realised she had made a mistake. "Uh," she said, backtracking, "No. I mean, I have started doing odd jobs. It pays a lot."

"What kind of odd jobs?" Shinpachi asked suspiciously, but determined not to answer further, Kagura made a show of yawning hugely. "Later," she managed to say, effectively halting the interrogation. "I need my beauty sleep, yes?"

Otae frowned at this, but saw that there was no sense in pressing. "Alright. But you’ll tell us tomorrow, won’t you?"

"Yup," said Kagura, waving a hand. "Goodnight."

She went to her room, and after a long, hot shower, made up her futon and sank into the plush fabric with a sigh. She felt as if she had lived through three entire weeks in the three days since she'd met the elusive owner of the Hotel Del Sol and was eager for her well-deserved rest. In the safety of her room, there was no sadist to bother her, and Kagura allowed herself to finally slowly drift to sleep... 

"There you are."

Kagura’s eyes shot open. She leapt backwards out of her bed into a defensive position, instinctively unsheathing a katana from the scabbard at her hip and crossing it before her in protection.

She was no longer in her room, but instead a falling-apart barn, low ceilinged and crowded with stacks of hay. Above her, hot rays of sun shone past the badly thatched roof of the building and through the rafters, casting the man standing before her in gentle golden light. He wore green plated armour, simple in practicality but gilded at the edges — the garb of a high standing soldier. His long sandy blonde hair, pulled into a loose ponytail, framed an elegantly handsome face. 

"Do you know," he said, leaning casually against a wooden pillar, "How hard it was to find you?"

Kagura shifted the handle of the sword in her hands. The weight of it was both familiar and alien in her palm. Sougo's eyes narrowed. "That, I think, belongs to me."

"Not anymore," Kagura spoke without thinking. "You should be careful about where you leave your stuff. Don't you know there is a bandit around?"

"So I’ve heard," said Sougo dryly. "Apparently, she’s been terrorising every brothel within the county. Just my luck that she would hit my favourite one on the night I happened to be visiting." He looked her up and down. "So what? Are you a scorned prostitute or something?"

"Just passing by," Kagura scowled. "And I do not steal from brothels. Just the pigs who pay for them." She grinned at the change in Sougo's expression. "If you can afford a pretty woman, you can afford to lose a sword."

"The men outside happen to disagree," he countered coldly. "After all, it wasn't just my valuables that you stole." He straightened at the sound of footsteps outside the barn. "Where have you hidden the rest of your spoils?"

Kagura felt alarm sink into her stomach. "You are searching the village?"

"You expected us not to?"

Kagura raised her sword in defiance. "Call your men off."

Sougo's face darkened. "I don't think you're in a position to be making orders."

"I said, call them off!" repeated Kagura in a higher voice. "Get them to retreat from the village, or—"

"Or what?" Sougo took a step closer and Kagura's sword flew higher. "You'll kill a shogunate officer?"

"No! I—"

The footsteps outside grew louder, and Kagura spoke her next words quickly. "You don't understand," she hissed. "Yes, I took your sword, but the people here have nothing."

Sougo blinked, taken aback. "I will come quietly," she insisted. _"Please."_

"Captain Okita?"

Kagura glanced at the door, and using the moment of distraction, Sougo sidestepped to the right of her sword and surged forward, grabbing her wrist and twisting the blade from her hand. Before she could even gasp, he clapped a hand over her mouth and shoved her back with his weight. They fell out of sight behind a wooden pillar and into a pile of hay just as the barn door opened.

"Captain," said the voice again. "We talked to the village elder and he says nobody has come through here in the past week. Should we still conduct a search?"

Kagura tried to throw Sougo off and silence him but his left hand still covered her mouth, and the other had her wrists pinned fast above her head. Her attempt only caused his grip to tighten, and for a brief moment, she pictured the inevitable, her being carted off to the prison she knew resided beneath the Shogun's palace without any hope of escape. But, to her complete and utter shock, Sougo did the last thing she had expected him to do — he lied. 

"No," he said, catching Kagura off-guard. "I know the elder here. If that's what he says then he's telling the truth."

Her struggle against Sougo's grip ceased in her surprise, and she stared up at him with wide eyes. His expression was unreadable as he met her gaze. "Wait for me outside the village."

"Understood, Captain," said the voice, and retreated.

Sougo breathed out a sigh and he removed his hand from her mouth. For a while, neither of them said anything. Kagura was acutely aware of his weight on top of her, one hand still loosely holding onto her wrists, the other braced atop the hay beside her cheek.

"You've been giving it away," he said finally. "The things you've been stealing."

Kagura swallowed. "They have nothing," she said again.

His lips unconciously parted. There was something akin to wonder in his eyes. "Who are you?"

She opened her mouth to reply.

_"Kagura-chan!"_

Kagura sat up, her eyes flying open. She was back in her futon.

“I _said—_ “ her door slid open, “Are you going to pick that up?”

Shinpachi stood on the other side of the doorway with an exasperated expression. "It's been going on for almost five minutes now."

Kagura looked over to her bag, inside which her phone was currently blaring the Doreamon theme song. She grunted and crawled towards it blearily, which Shinpachi took as a yes. He closed the door and left her to pick up the phone in privacy.

"What?" spoke Kagura into the speaker.

"I've been calling for five minutes," came Sougo's annoyed voice.

"Huh," said Kagura. She could almost hear him rolling his eyes from the other side of the phone.

"You have your first job," he informed her. "A customer wants raisin toast from a specific bakery in Shibuya. I'll text you the address, so deliver it before eleven."

Kagura fell back into her futon. "What a sadist," she muttered.

"What?"

"I said you are a sadist!" she hollered into the speaker and hung up the phone.

"Was that your new boss?" Shinpachi called from the kitchen.

Kagura sighed, pressing her face into her pillow. "Just a dream," she whispered.

  


* * *

  


The underground line to Shinjuku was filled with more ghosts than Kagura had thought there would be.

Eager to escape the strange glare of the sun, spirits of every kind crowded the platform, and as Kagura waited for her train, she watched as they went about their unusual affairs. Some loudly made fun of the human commuters who couldn't see them, while others chose to walk back and forth along the tracks as they chatted with fellow ghosts, seeming content and yet bored at the same time.

Vaguely, Kagura wondered if she had a responsibility to invite them to the Hotel Del Sol as the newly appointed Human Affairs Manager. Sougo had explained the previous night that ghosts who were not considered top priority spirits by Reapers often slipped through the cracks and wandered about until they were eventually escorted to the afterlife, or to the hotel if they wished to stay a little longer; but he had neglected to mention Kagura's personal role toward these roaming spirits.

She eyed the ghost nearest to her, a woman in her late thirties, and contemplated reaching out to her before the sudden arrival of her train alerted Kagura to the fact that she was already late enough as it was. Casting one last glance at the woman, she reluctantly boarded without speaking a word.

As Kagura took a seat, her thoughts naturally gravitated from Sougo to her dream. The green armour, his long hair — the Sougo of her imagination was a near perfect copy of the woodblock print depiction she had doodled over in his office, which explained how he had appeared in her thoughts, but not the growing guilt she felt over witnessing such a side to him; for despite the dream being of her own invention, Kagura’s presence within had somehow felt invasive, like she had been intruding on a private moment that did not belong to her. It was a ridiculous notion, but even now, she couldn't quite shake the uncomfortable suspicion that the dream had been more than just a made-up scenario from her mind.

Kagura's grip on the paper bag of warm bread in her hands tightened. "It wasn't a real dream," she said aloud, in an attempt to convince herself. "It _wasn't. _"__

"How do you know?"

____

She jumped, looking to her right. The man beside her was the one to have spoken, though Kagura wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there. He looked to be in his late twenties and wore a traditional faded kimono that matched his kind, grey eyes. His long, pale hair swung over his shoulder as he tilted his head and smiled. "How do you know it wasn't real?"

____

Kagura went red. "I just— I was..."

____

The man waited patiently, the corners of his eyes crinkling in fatherly amusement. Kagura's voice trailed off as recognition dawned on her. She suddenly felt as if she were six-years-old again, looking up at an angel as he gently laid a bouquet of sunflowers in her arms with the promise that one day she would understand. "I know you."

____

His smile grew wider, and the world around them seem to fade away. It was as if they were the only two people on the train. 

____

"You delivered Sougo's flowers to me once," she continued slowly, "That first year, yes?"

____

He inclined his head. "I'm not usually in the business of delivering bouquets," said the man, confirming her statement. "But that day, I volunteered."

____

Kagura was suspicious. "Why? Who are you?"

____

"My name is Shoyou," he answered softly. "I suppose you could call me a friend — of both you and our mutual cursed warrior."

____

Kagura wondered who he could mean. "Sougo?" she asked, and he nodded. "What do you mean he's cursed?"

To her confusion, her companion's eyes seemed to sadden at the question. "Sougo has... a complicated past. He did something terrible many years ago, and he's been paying for it ever since."

____

She remembered Yamazaki's words from the night before: _He's just serving out his punishment._

____

The man continued, "To atone for his crimes, Sougo has been taking care of lost souls as manager of the Guest House of the Sun for almost five-hundred years. Until his contract is terminated, he is forbidden from so much as harming a human or pure spirit." He added, a little ironically, "Unfortunately, he still gets into all kinds of trouble, like with the ghost from the other night."

____

Kagura blinked in surprise. "You know about that?"

____

"I know a lot of things."

____

She frowned, thinking back to the night in question. "He said he wasn’t allowed to hurt it."

____

The man's expression turned almost disapproving. "It was lucky Gintoki stopped him in time. A pure spirit is one that hasn’t taken a soul, and as terrible as that mercenary was, he had never killed anybody in his lifetime and was therefore still untainted."

____

"There should be something in that contract about self-defense," Kagura grumbled. "What did the sadist do that was so bad anyway, yes?"

____

The man smiled. "Unfortunately, that’s not my story to tell. But you'll keep an eye on him, won't you? You're meant to, after all."

____

The train came to a stop, and Kagura saw that they had arrived in Shinjuku. She stood up to leave, but not before looking back to ask, "Why me?"

____

"Fate works in strange ways sometimes. Why not you?"

____

"That is not an answer."

____

His expression was amused. "I've heard that before," he said, with a secret look in his eye. "Until we meet again, Kagura-san."

____

Kagura looked at him for a moment longer and got off the train, wondering, not for the first time, what kind of man she had agreed to work for.

____

At the hotel, Kagura rode the elevator up to the lobby with the determination to put both her dream and her conversation on the train out of her mind for the rest of the day. She would rather die and come back as a ghost than let slip to Sougo that she had dreamed of him - the hotel owner would surely never let her live it down.

In hindsight, she should've known better than to think her commitment would hold. Kagura succeeded for all of five seconds before the elevator doors opened and she came face to face with the very object of her thoughts. 

____

Her mouth fell open. Sougo stood on the other side of the doorway, seeming surprised to see her before he began to grin. "Good timing," he commented, stepping inside the lift without noticing her expression. He saw the bag of bread in her hands and took it, tossing it to Hijikata who was walking past the door.

____

"Pass that on for us, would you, Hijikata-san?"

____

Kagura saw a brief glimpse of Hijikata rolling his eyes and walking away before Sougo pressed the button for the garage and the doors closed.

____

"Where are we going?"

____

"On a field trip," Sougo replied. He looked at her with a strangely mischievous expression. 

_Who are you?_

He grinned. "Hope you're in the mood to catch an inugami."

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like with every update, my chapters get longer and longer :') 
> 
> Ngl tho, I was super excited about this chapter. The plot thickens! I'd love to hear what you guys think of Kagura's dream and what it could mean for her and Sougo's relationship (also not to be thirsty in the end note but ya'll... when he had her pinned down. Omfg).
> 
> Also Shoyou is here too! We don't see a lot of him in the anime, so I'm not as familiar with him as the others. He might be a little OOC here but hopefully it's not too bad. He has a super interesting role in this story! Kind of makes you wonder who else is going be introduced later on...
> 
> As always, thanks for reading! I hope you're just as excited as I am for the other chapters ;D
> 
> \- Arasei <3


	7. Maroon

"So, why are we catching an inugami in a Porsche?"

The car they were using that day was green - the colour of the hunt, Sougo had announced. He drove casually, as if trapping a mythological dog spirit was an everyday chore. "Haven't you ever done anything in style?"

"Only if I want to look really stupid, yes?" Kagura snapped, glancing to her side. In addition to having discarded his usual suit jacket for the day, Sougo wore his tie loose at his unbuttoned collar with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows. It was the most relaxed that Kagura had ever seen the hotel owner, but even in such a casual state, he still managed to retain a certain elegance about him. She badly wanted to smack him.

"What do you want for dinner?" he asked, jolting Kagura out of her reverie. "The sun will probably have set before we manage to kill this thing. I'm in the mood for crab..."

Kagura frowned at this claim. For the first time, her gaze drifted to Sougo's sheathed katana, the pointed end stuck in the cup holder between them with the hilt leaning against his shoulder. " _Kill?_ " she repeated.

Sougo seemed to realise what he said, and his fingers flexed slightly on the steering wheel. Though his expression remained easy, his tone was a little more subdued as he said, "You wouldn't have come if I didn't say otherwise."

Kagura scowled, slouching into her chair. Of that, he was certainly right. She would've much rather stayed back at the hotel and convince Kondou to mix her a margarita, but she didn't say so either. Sulkily, she asked, "Why can't we just catch it?"

Sougo shrugged. "Our customer claims this thing used to harass her while she was still alive. She's willing to pay a lot for the inugami's head, and won't pass on to the afterlife before we deal with it."

She shot him a look. "So it is about money."

His lips pursed at the accusation. "My sake doesn't pay for itself."

Kagura, suddenly thinking of the man from the train, snapped, "Maybe you should worry less about sake, and more about not offending another supernatural being, yes?"

Sougo blinked, looking at her for the first time. "What?"

Kagura blushed at her outburst and turned away. "Nothing."

Her companion continued to give her a long searching gaze, but Kagura remained stubbornly staring out at the passing cityscape flashing by her window, and Sougo's attention was soon forcefully diverted back onto the road. They spent the rest of the car ride in a strange silence.

Eventually, Sougo pulled over into a quiet street just off the main road. "We're here," he said, turning off the car.

Kagura took in the scenery with surprise. "This is Kabukicho."

"I didn't ask you to come with me for the fun of it," said Sougo, grabbing his katana before stepping out of the car. 

She followed suit, slamming the car door. "You didn't ask me at all."

They walked along the road, passing by several glittering hostess clubs, many of them active even during the middle of the day. As they continued down the street, Kagura noticed how people looked at the katana clipped at Sougo's belt. He either didn't notice the way people stared at him, or didn't care. 

Curious, Kagura asked of him, "How come people can see you?" 

She watched as Sougo's hand came to absently rest on the hilt. "I'm not dead, remember?" he replied dryly. "Just not alive. And before you say anything, there's a difference."

Kagura narrowed her eyes at this, but Sougo merely smirked. "Why do you think I'm able to walk around during the day? A dead person couldn't do that, unless they were a non-human spirit, like an inugami."

"But why can't they?" Kagura pressed.

"Ghosts are just weaker under the sun," Sougo replied placidly, before stopping and looking around. "How do we get to Shinra Plaza from here?"

"Why?"

"What do you think?" Sougo shot back.

Kagura scowled, but pushed him into a left side street and in the right direction. "Will it really be there?"

"We'll find out," said Sougo calmly.

She rolled her eyes. After a moment, she thought to ask, "What does an inugami look like, anyway?"

Sougo gave the question some thought. "Imagine a giant dog with fangs, about twenty times uglier than a normal dog," he described. "You must know what that feels like."

Kagura kicked him in the backside, causing him to stumble forward. "For fucks sake," he complained, regaining his balance. "It was a _joke_ , you damn gorilla."

She gave him a dirty look. "I hope it eats you."

"Like hell it will," scoffed Sougo, drawing his sword by an inch so that the metal caught in the light. "You think this thing is just for show?"

Kagura glanced at the blade, feeling strangely guilty at the sight of it. "Do we really have to kill it?"

Sougo returned the sword to its sheath with a sigh. "If it bothers you that much, just think of it as an act of mercy."

Her nose scrunched. "What does that mean?"

"Do you know how an inugami is born?"

Kagura frowned. "Mami said that they are the spirits of dogs that have died."

"Dogs that died with a grudge," Sougo corrected. "And animals hold onto those for a long time." He paused briefly. "Just like humans.”

She looked at him curiously, and he added, “We'd be putting this one out of its misery, which is more than a lot of people get."

His tone struck Kagura as odd, but before she could comment, a faint, rumbling roar sounded from the distance.

She glanced at her companion. "How giant did you say this thing was?"

Sougo’s face was grim. " _Giant._ "

They walked faster.

  


* * *

  
Shinra Plaza was a relatively new establishment to Kabukicho. Fourteen years ago, the district was a hotbed for gamblers and players with too much money to lose, but despite how it now boasted of shiny new malls and shops for the average resident, Kagura knew that nothing much had changed since she had last lived in the area. It was a well known fact that the building was just a mere front put on to fool unwanted visitors from finding the gambling den beneath its surface, and while Kagura was no frequent visitor, she was acquainted enough with the neighborhood to be able to confidently lead Sougo to its doors. 

Upon reaching the Plaza, however, they found that the building was closed. "The owner died a few days ago," explained Sougo, referring to their customer. "Her company probably decided to close the plaza for some time out of respect."

He stepped forward, and as if to demonstrate how little of said respect he had, he raised his sheathed katana and smashed the glass door with the hilt into shattered pieces. He straightened and walked through the metal frame of the door without regard, leaving Kagura to sigh loudly behind him and reluctantly follow, glass shards crunching loudly beneath her boots as she did so.

They made it about three steps inside before there was another roar, this time, from inside the building. The sound shook the walls and echoed terribly back and forth within the plaza, almost deafening Kagura's eardrums.

She removed her hands from her ears once it was over. "We are going to die," she announced.

"We're _not_ ," Sougo snapped, unsheathing his sword. Thumping noises came from upstairs, and he gestured to a still escalator. "Up here."

They moved quietly through the silent and empty building, moving further into windowless darkness the further they ventured. The loud thumping noises became louder towards the back of the plaza.

Unable to stop herself, Kagura whispered, "Why would the inugami be here?"

Sougo gave a vague shrug. "Personal attachment? Our customer was a huge developer here - she probably crushed the building that it was living in to build this plaza."

Kagura stopped. "You didn't tell me that!"

He glanced back at her. "So? It's not like it changes anything."

She bit her lip, trying to make sense of the new information. If the inugami's personal vendetta was solely with the owner of the building, there was a high chance that it would not have bothered with anybody else. In addition to that, the particular inugami they were hunting had only ever harassed their customer. That would mean…

_A pure spirit is one that hasn’t taken a soul._

Kagura had a bad feeling. "Sadist," she whispered urgently, as he peeked around a corner. "Hey-" 

Her companion withdrew suddenly, pushing her back into the wall with his arm.

"Found it," Sougo whispered.

Kagura's breath shortened. "What's it doing?"

"Pacing," he said, and dared to take another look. His sword glinted in the dark.

Kagura grabbed his sleeve. 'I don't think this is a good idea," she hissed. "It has a right to be mad, yes?"

Sougo drew back with an incredulous expression. "You're going to talk ethics? Right now?"

"You only just told me the inugami's story!" Kagura protested. "Listen - you said you were not allowed to kill the spirit from the other night, yes? What makes you think you are allowed to kill this one?"

"That’s different-"

But whatever he was about to say, Kagura didn’t find out, for suddenly, a terrible roar sounded throughout the building like a clap of thunder. The wall beside them exploded into crumbled stone as a large white head rounded the corner, almost snapping Sougo in half between sharp white teeth before Kagura caught and hauled him back by the arm.

"C'mon!" she screamed, dragging him down the hallway as the inugami fully burst into the hallway and gave chase.

Sougo ripped his arm from her grip. "If you hadn't distracted me-"

"Shut up and run!"

The inugami bounded after them, almost catching Kagura by the elbow before they veered sharp right into another hallway.

"Get outside!" Sougo hollered. "Take the car and lure it into an open area. I'll catch up with you and fight it in the light!"

Kagura almost tripped. "But-"

The ceiling was crumbling apart under the pressure of the inugami's violent pursuit. There was no time to argue as Sougo threw her the keys. "Get in the car and fucking drive!"

They jumped the escalator and hopped through the shattered doorway, bursting into the light.

Kagura ran right for the car, but Sougo was not behind her. She might've been inclined to be worried for him had the inugami not crashed through the doorway at that very moment, and swerved right to follow her. It was every bit as horrifying as Sougo had described it in the light, with crazed red eyes and drooling fangs.

"Get out of the way!" she tried to yell at pedestrians as she ran, but while people panicked at the rumbling of the ground and the sight of pavement splitting beneath the inugami's footsteps, nobody seemed to notice the monster at the center of the disaster.

Kagura kept running, reaching the Porsche in record time and diving inside. "C'mon, c'mon!" she pleaded as she fumbled to jam the key into the starter. It went in with a click and she twisted it violently, screaming with delight as the car came to life.

She tore off from the curb with a sharp squeal, struggling with the clutch as she veered wildly down the street. She'd never driven before and the car often lost control, especially under the buckling road. The inugami was tearing apart the city, and the causality rate was increasing. Kagura would have to lure it to an open space where it would do less damage.

"The park," she muttered, attempting to shift the car into a higher gear. "Just get to the park."

Kagura winced at another of the inugami's roars and glanced in the rear view mirror, only to almost go off-road in shock of what she saw. Sougo had somehow managed to climb along the inugami, probably jumping on when the inugami had burst out the building. He had made it to its head without the creature noticing and hung on determinedly, his sword held between his teeth. 

"IDIOT!" Kagura yelled, using the car wheel to honk. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Sougo didn't hear. He sat up on the inugami's head, holding onto its fur with one hand. With the other, he removed his sword from his mouth and raised it high in the air. The blade shone bright in the sun.

_You'll keep an eye on him, won't you?_

Kagura swore, knowing she would later regret her next action. Ducking her head in advance, she braked hard, causing the inugami to stumble against the car and half crush the roof. 

"Shit!" Kagura reeled back as the dashboard was destroyed under the dog spirit's weight. She was forced to let go of the steering wheel lest she lose her hand, causing the car to skid sideways across the road before crashing into a neighboring building.

Bright spots danced before her eyes as she raised her head, her vision blurry and spinning. "Fuck," she mumbled. She held onto the steering wheel and lightly touched her head. Her fingers came away with blood.

From far away, she thought she heard somebody yell her name. "Hey!" came a muffled voice. "Answer me! _Kagura!_ "

A hand grabbed her shoulder. The ringing noise in her ears slowly faded.

"That hurts," she groaned, blinking wearily. Sougo was kneeling by the ripped open door, taking her in. He held her face, eyes widening at the drops of blood crawling down her cheek. "Shit," he hissed. "Where else are you hurt?"

"Just th' head."

Sougo clenched his jaw. "Alright. C'mon, get out."

He helped her out of the car, supporting her at the waist. 

"Where's the inugami?"

Sougo held her at his side. "Ran off," he said tightly. “I’m taking you to the hospital and then you’re staying out of my way.”

Kagura, blinking through the dots of light, realised what he had said and tried to tug him back. "Wait - you can't -" she almost stumbled before Sougo caught her arm.

"What is it? Did you break something?"

"No, I -"

"The hospital is just two streets away," he told her, as he attempted to get her moving once again. "I'll help you walk it, so-"

"Wait, just - stop moving!"

Sougo paused, properly taken aback. Kagura took a moment to catch her breath. "Don't go after the inugami."

He gaped at her. "What?"

Kagura pulled away from his hold as she felt her head begin to clear. "I'm telling you, he is innocent," she insisted. "If he only ever harassed that plaza owner, then he hasn't done anything wrong! You can't kill him for that!"

"What the hell are you..." he paused suddenly, as if coming to a realisation. "Hang on - Did you crash my car on purpose?"

She made a face. "Well..."

Any remaining concern in Sougo's expression immediately dissolved as he drew back, infuriated. "Are you serious? I almost had him!"

While his reaction was unsurprising, Kagura felt no less insulted by his outrage. "That is why I did it in the first place! Listen to me - If he hasn't killed anybody, that still makes him a pure-"

"You're unbelievable!" Sougo enunciated, clearly not listening. "I had my doubts, but you have got to be the worst employee on Earth, you know that?!"

Kagura stamped her foot, frustrated at his interruption. "You are the idiot that hired me! I was just trying to save your life!"

Sougo scoffed in disbelief. "So what? Am I supposed to be grateful?! I was thrown off the inugami's head thanks to your little stunt!"

"Good! It is the least you deserve, you stupid-"

A cry of panic cut her off. In the direction of the park, a series of loud yells began to erupt.

Sougo swore, drawing his sword as he ran forward. "Get to the hospital on your own!" 

"Where are you going?!"

"Take a fucking guess!"

Kagura threw up her hands. "Fine! Go ahead and die! I don't even know why I tried!" 

She spun on her heel and stormed away in the other direction, looking back once only to be greeted by an empty street. Sougo had already gone. 

Kagura scowled and kept walking. "You'll keep an eye on him, won't you?" she voiced mockingly, mimicking the man from the train. "Who would want to take care of a brat like that, yes?"

People were beginning to come out onto the street to investigate the new deep set cracks spanning across the road. "Was it an earthquake?" somebody questioned and Kagura scoffed, kicking a rock beside her foot. She'd gone through such a ridiculous ordeal and nobody had even noticed.

She wiped away the blood from her forehead with irritation. "Whatever. That is the last time I will ever help anybody!"

As if hearing her words, a loud rumble echoed throughout the street, followed by a distant roar.

"It's starting again!" a man shouted.

Kagura kicked another rock. "Who cares?" she snapped, but everybody was running back indoors.

The ground trembled beneath her shoes. "I don't care," Kagura told herself firmly. "I _don't._ "

"Hey!" a woman called out. Kagura looked back, seeing a woman in a traditional shrine maiden outfit holding onto the doorway of a brightly lit building. She gestured to Kagura. "Yes, you! You're Shimura's brat, aren't you?"

Kagura blinked, recognizing her as Otae's co-worker at Snack Smile. Kagura often saw the two women butting heads on the few occasions that she had visited Otae at the cabaret club, and as she gave the building another once over, she was surprised to find she had apparently walked further than she thought she had, and had passed the familiar establishment without even noticing.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the woman continued. "Do you even know how dangerous it is right now?!"

Kagura's mouth pursed. "Dangerous, huh?"

She looked back to the park. There was another rumble, more violent than the one before. 

'He still gets into all sorts of trouble,' Yoshida Shoyou had told her with a faint smile. 

"Even though he should know better," Kagura grumbled. She thought of the mercenary ghost from the night before, and of how Sougo had raised his sword without any regard of consequence.

_You know what would've happened if you had struck._

"Dammit," she muttered.

The shrine maiden was clutching her doorway tight as the street shook. "C'mere and get inside," she called. "Or Otae will never let me hear the end of it!" 

Kagura sighed, making up her mind. "Sorry lady," she said as she rolled up her sleeves. "But I can't let my moron boss die before he pays me."

"What? Hey-"

Her yells went ignored as Kagura ran back in the direction she had come from. She fought through crowds of people rushing past her from the opposite direction, all of them fleeing from the epicenter of the 'earthquake' tearing apart Kabukicho Park.

By the time Kagura arrived at the gated entrance, much of the grounds was already in shambles. With growing unease, she sprinted through the park in the direction of the inugami's roars, staggering up a hilled incline in her path. She had just reached the top of the slope when a black smudge on the horizon caught her notice as it came flying towards her.

"Holy-" Kagura ducked just as a tree trunk soared over her head. It landed with a thundering crash behind her.

She got up, her heart beating fast. "Holy shit," she finished, turning to look over the war zone spread out before the hill - deep gouges and craters marred the once smooth and grassy park ground, and multiple trees lay fallen at the feet of the inugami of Shinra Plaza. It had swelled to twice its original size and looked downright murderous as it swiped a thick muscled arm through a glowing sphere-like barrier glowing at its feet.

The barrier blew apart, causing the inugami to stumble back, and the figure inside the sphere to be blasted backwards into a still-standing tree, the force of the impact caysing the trunk to topple over.

"Sadist!" she yelled, skidding down the hill and running to the figure. His shirt had been slashed through with sharp claws, but strangely, there were no fresh wounds beneath the fabric. 

Sougo groaned, opening one eye. "What the fuck?" he moaned, seeing it was Kagura. He tried to sit up. "I thought I told you to go to a hospital."

"You did," she said, and slammed him back down into the ground.

"Oi!"

"Leave the inugami alone!" she shouted, holding down his shoulders. "Say you won't fight it and I will let you up!"

"You idiot, this isn't funny-"

There was a loud cry. The inugami had recovered and was running at them, his mouth open in wild fury.

"China, move!" Sougo yelled, shoving her off of him. Kagura scrambled toward his sword and threw it far to the side.

"Are you fucking insane?!" she heard him scream behind her, but Kagura didn't look back as she hurried to her feet and ran directly toward the inugami.

"Kagura!"

She skidded to a halt in the middle of the inugami's path, one hand outstretched. "Stop!"

The inugami’s eyes widened at the gesture and it stumbled, digging in its claws into the ground. It managed to stop an arm’s breadth away from her palm.

Kagura was breathing hard as she swallowed, looking up into the dog spirit's eyes. The inugami made a noise like a whine.

She heard the sound of running behind her and spun on her heel, spreading her arms wide to protect the inugami. "Don’t come any closer!"

Sougo slowed down, his sword still drawn and ready in his hand. "What the fuck are you doing, China?" he growled. His shirt was half hanging off of him in shreds, his hair was mussed, and his pants were dirty. He looked furious. No longer was he a stylish hotel CEO, but a war general. 

For a moment, Kagura saw him with dark eyes and long hair, wearing a yukata stained in blood.

Her breath shortened. 'I met somebody," she told him. "On the train. I know about your contract-'

Still walking towards her, Sougo snapped, "Stop talking shit and move away-"

"No!" she shouted, and Sougo stopped in surprise. “I said, I _know._ You are not allowed to harm a human or pure spirit as long as you are walking on this earth, yes?"

He stared at her with wide eyes, saying nothing.

Kagura raised her chin. "From what I have heard from you, this inugami is still pure. You can't hurt it."

"You don’t know that," he began to protest, but Kagura cut him off. "And you do?" she challenged. "What happens if you break your contract?"

His jaw clenched. There was no emotion in his voice as he said without remorse - "I die."

She looked at him hard. "Is that what you want? To die?"

She saw his eyes darken. He didn't reply. 

Kagura straightened. "Well, I wont let you. I don’t know what you did in the past, but-"

"But what?" Sougo suddenly snarled, his expression slightly manic. "You hear some rumour and all of a sudden you care? Who are you to stop me? You don't even know anything _about_ me-"

"You saved me," Kagura snapped. "You protected Okuni and I from that ghost. That means, that despite you being a huge sadist and a massive jerk, I owe you. That is enough, yes?"

He stared at her, seemingly speechless. His eyes travelled upwards and widened. "China!" he shouted, readying his sword.

Kagura whipped around, but the inugami was not attacking - rather it was shrinking, until what was facing her was not an angered spirit, but an overly large dog not even twice her height, with bright eyes, a wet nose, and a happy mouth. It licked her face cheerfully with a coarse tongue. Kagura, despite herself, laughed in relief. "You are really cute!" She cooed, scratching its ears. It leaned into her touch and gave a pleased rumble.

She turned back. "You see? He’s not evil, yes?"

Sougo did not look thrilled, but still, he lowered his sword. "So? There’s still an inugami on the loose."

"Then we give it a home," Kagura retorted. 

He scowled. "The Hotel Del Sol doesn’t take in strays."

"He will not want to stay in the same building as you anyway, yes?" Kagura sniped. She gave the inugami another pat and smiled. "Don’t worry," she told the dog spirit comfortingly, looking back in the direction of the cabaret club. "I have a better idea."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope nobody here minds if the fic has a lot of swearing, but considering that it's Sougo and Kags we're talking about, I feel like swearing is kind of their thing... 
> 
> Also um, sorry about updating literally after two months 💀 I started an internship recently, so the only time I get to write nowadays is on the train trip to and from work lololol. I also wrote and rewrote this chapter sooo many times, to the point that there will be quite a few deleted scenes posted on Tumblr after this haha. I was so close to giving up on so many occasions, but a lot of you have been commenting and leaving kudos on my past fics recently and you've all been super encouraging 😭 I swear that without you guys I wouldn't still be here writing so I want to take the time to really say thank you so much.
> 
> The world has been in such a crazy state these last few months, but I hope that you're all doing well and taking care of yourselves. Please take the time to destress and relax if you need it, and eat and sleep well! To those of you who may be having a hard time, you have one random author here who believes in you. Whatever it is you need or want to do, you can do it! 
> 
> Lastly, thank you thank you so much again for reading despite me being so late. You all mean the world to me and I hope to pay you back with more chapters very soon! The next one is a personal favourite of mine, and I'm eager to see your reactions to it 😉
> 
> Love you all! Stay safe ~
> 
> \- Arasei <3


	8. Chartruese

Kagura sighed, sliding down the wall she was leaning against to sit on the floor. From the other end of the empty hallway, the sound of approaching footsteps alerted her to the arrival of Hijikata, who came up to her with a manila folder in hand.

"What's with all the blood?" he asked by way of greeting, gesturing to Kagura's hair.

Kagura raised a self-conscious hand to the vermilion strands, feeling a slight bump on the side of her head. "It's nothing," she replied moodily, brushing out the remaining dried flakes of blood. "It is much less painful than having to listen to _this,_ " she waved a hand at the door of Sougo's office, beside which she was sitting, "for another minute, yes?"

"They’re still at it, huh?" said Hijikata amusedly.

"Yup," replied Kagura gloomily. From inside the room, muted yelling continued to drift out.

"We sincerely apologise, ma’am," came Kondou's placating voice.

"I don’t want your half assed apologies!" a woman shrieked. "What I want is that inugami’s head on a pike, you incompetent _fools-_ "

Hijikata rolled his eyes, taking a seat beside Kagura. "Don’t worry about it," he told her. "Kondou-san used to be a teacher. Everybody listens to him – it’s why Sougo always brings him in to smooth things over with unhappy customers."

Kagura scowled. "That lady is just so mean, yes? She destroyed Sadaharu’s house to build a stupid gambling den – how can she blame him for being mad?"

Hijikata raised an eyebrow. "Sadaharu?"

"The inugami," Kagura clarified. "I named him."

The general manager snorted. "I bet Sougo wasn’t happy about that. Where did you end up taking him?"

Kagura picked at the grime on her pants. "I know a shrine maiden who works part-time at the local cabaret club. She and her sister are the real deal, yes? They also know the sadist, apparently. We took Sadaharu to them, and they agreed to look after him."

Hijikata took out a cigarette as he considered Kagura's words. "Sisters, huh? You must be talking about Ane and Mone - They’re always pointing ghosts in our direction."

Eyeing the cigarette, Kagura asked him curiously, "Can you even smoke that? You're dead."

The older man stuck one end of the rolled paper in his mouth. "Sometimes," he began as he got to his feet, "It tastes like I can." He looked up to the ceiling and added, "Not all of us can get drunk when we want to."

Before Kagura could ask what he meant, the door slammed open and a woman stormed out in fury. Kondou followed slowly, looking sheepish. He said to Kagura and Hijikata optimistically, "I think that went well."

"It was a fucking disaster," snapped a voice from inside the office. "Now we’ll never get that money."

Sougo appeared briefly at the doorway. "I want bottles of sake up here in ten minutes," he ordered with a scowl, and slammed the door shut. Hijikata glanced at the folder in his hand with an eye roll. "I'll ask him to sign off on this later," he said, and walked away. 

Kondou looked to Kagura with an expression of sympathy. "I think you had best come with me, Miss China girl," he said. "It'd be better if you were the one to bring up the bottles."

"Me?" Kagura scoffed, but she got up nonetheless. "I'm the one he's mad at, Gori."

"It's not you," assured Kondou as they ventured down the hallway. "Having to apologise to a customer like Kada-san would be a difficult task for anyone, let alone somebody with as much pride as Sougo. He'll get over it eventually."

Kagura's mouth unwillingly twitched into a smile and Kondou gave her a reassuring pat on the back. "At times like these, the best thing we can do is give him space to calm down."

"Does drinking help?"

"It works," Kondou admitted carefully. "But like everybody who drinks to forget, it only works for a while."

Kagura thought of her father and frowned. She knew of that all too well.

They soon reached the lobby and were on their way to the bar when a familiar voice called out. "Kagura-nee!"

Kagura glanced around, spotting Okuni waving to her from a comfy sofa. Kondou grinned. "You keep her company," he told Kagura. "I'll be back soon with the sake."

She gave her agreement and they parted, Kondou heading down to the cellar and Kagura to sit down beside Okuni.

"You’re still reading that junk?" she asked, giving the Jump magazine in Okuni's hands a glance of disdain. "My roommate says it rots your brain, yes?"

"It’s funny," Okuni defended, holding out the magazine. "Do you want to try reading it? You look like you need to be cheered up."

Kagura scowled, slumping petulantly into the couch. "That idiot of a hotel owner is the one that needs cheering up. I saved his life and this is the thanks I get."

Okuni cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

Kagura exhaled deeply and told Okuni her long winded story, beginning with her meeting Yoshida Shoyou on the train up until the circumstances leading to her sitting beside the girl on the couch. By the end of it, the Okuni's eyes were shining with delight. "That sounds just like something out of Gintaman."

"When people in Gintaman save people, they usually get thanked, yes?" Kagura complained. "But instead, the bastard has not even looked at me once since we left Ane and Mone’s shrine."

Okuni glanced at her slyly. "Kagura-nee," she began, leaning close. "Could it be that you like Okita-san?"

Kagura recoiled. "Gross! How can you even think that?"

Okuni shrugged. "You always call him names, but still you saved him. Why did you do it if not because you like him?"

"He saved us first," Kagura argued. "I went after him to repay my debt. Besides, he can't die before he can pay me my first check, yes?"

The girl beside her was suppressing a growing smile. "Okay. But you know what? I think he’s just embarrassed. I bet he’s really grateful to you."

Kagura scowled. "I think you are giving him too much credit."

"Miss China girl!" called Kondou at that moment, "I have the sake!"

Kagura tipped back her head. "Speaking of which," she said, reluctantly getting to her feet.

Okuni waved in goodbye. "Good luck, Kagura-nee."

Kagura waved back as she jogged over to Kondou. "Only one?" she asked, seeing only a solitary bottle in the bartender's hand.

"He drinks too much, nowadays," said Kondou, eyeing the sake ruefully. "It doesn’t hurt him, but…"

Kagura raised an eyebrow at his hesitance. "You okay, Gori?"

Kondou sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "Listen, Kagura-chan," he began, "About what I said before - I know what Sougo wants is space, but the truth is he has a bad habit of locking himself away. Toshi and I do our best, but…" he trailed off, handing her the bottle. "Well, anyway. Would you do us a favour and help him?"

"Me?" said Kagura in surprise. "What do you want me to do?"

"If he says something, do you think you could hear him out? He doesn’t talk to us much, nowadays."

Kagura made a face. "What makes you think he will talk to me?"

Kondou seemed a little stunned at her doubt. "But of course, he will! Since you were hired, I've never seen him look so at home here at the hotel."

Kagura wasn't sure what he meant by that, but she continued to insist, "That will not make him less mad at me, yes? I was the one who stopped him from killing that inugami."

"You did far more than that, Kagura-chan," said Kondou fondly. "You stopped him from killing a pure spirit."

Her eyes widened in surprise, and the older man's expression softened. "We all know of his curse, and at the end of the day, we all know that you were trying to save him. Trust me - if he's mad at you, it's only because he doesn't know how to say thank you."

Kagura frowned at this but gave no more argument. Bidding Kondou farewell, she travelled back up to Sougo’s office, sake bottle in hand. Both Okuni and Kondou had so easily come to the conclusion that Sougo's current bitter attitude was a mere expression of gratitude, but whether or not she saved his life, Kagura could not help but wonder if the hotel owner could be grateful for her stopping him from doing something he wanted to do. After all…

_Is that what you want? To die?_

Only Kagura had been witness to Sougo's hardened eyes. It she had let him answer, she had the uncomfortable feeling that he might have said 'yes.'

Her mouth was pursed as she opened the doors to his office and walked in. He was not sitting behind his usual disordered desk, so she took the chance to venture into his bedroom. "Oi, sadist," she called, stopping at the sight of the empty bed. She glanced around. "Where are you? I have your alcohol, yes?"

"Lies," Sougo’s voice replied, the sound muffled. Strangely enough, it came from the empty office that Kagura had just crossed. He continued despondently, "Kanna wouldn’t bring me alcohol." 

Kagura raised an eyebrow and walked back into the adjoining room, hearing the quiet rustling of clothes from the other side of the grand sofa. Behind it, she found Sougo lying flat on his back with his eyes closed, holding an empty bottle of sake to his chest.

"It's _Kagura,_ " she corrected, before rudely kicking his foot. "What the fuck is this? Where’d you get the bottle?"

"Kondou-san and th’ bastard Hijikata never bring me enough," Sougo mumbled, turning over to press his cheek against the cold marble floor. 

"So you had a stash in here already?" demanded Kagura, feeling her temper rise. "Then why did you have to make us go and get more, huh?"

"Ugh," he moaned, hugging the empty bottle tighter. "So loud. You’re not Kiki. Go away."

Kagura scowled, setting the sake bottle in her hand onto the floor before moving towards him. She hooked her arms beneath his armpits and lifted him half up into the air with a grunt. "No way," she said, dragging him around the couch. "If you are going to pass out, then at least do it on the couch, yes?"

"Floor, cold," Sougo mumbled, but he let himself be dragged to the sofa, where he was unceremoniously thrown onto the plush cushion. "There," said Kagura, dusting her hands and straightening. She left to fill up a glass of a water from the en suite bathroom in Sougo's bedroom, resolving to toss it in his face if he could not wake up to drink it. 

By the time she returned, however, he was already blinking sleepily up at the high ceiling, so it was with some disappointment that she shoved the glass in his direction. "Here," she said. "Drink."

The hotel owner sighed, not even sparing the water a glance. "I'm tired."

Kagura rolled her eyes. "Then sleep, idiot-"

"No, I mean," he said, waving a vague hand. "I'm tired. Of this. Everything."

She frowned, lowering the glass. "Of life?"

Sougo lazily lifted a hand into the light, pinching his thumb and index finger together. "...I was this close."

Kagura chewed her lip in silent debate before taking a hesitant seat on the floor beside the couch. "You know…" she began, setting the glass down on the floor, "You have all this cool stuff and money, and from what I've heard, you get to live forever, yes? As long as you don't get mad and hit somebody with your sword."

Sougo let his hand fall back down to his chest. "So?"

"So... Why do you want to die?"

He blinked, glancing down at her in surprise. "Huh? Who said anything ‘bout dying?"

Kagura stared at him, momentarily caught off guard. "What?"

Sougo groaned. "I was talking about the _money,_ obviously. A million yen, gone - I could’ve bought a new car with that kind of – Ow, _OW!"_

Kagura continued to smack him, her face red. "You’re an idiot! A really big idiot!"

"Hey! Fuck off, that hurts -"

She landed a final smack on his shoulder and snapped, "Good! I don’t get why that gorilla was so worried about you. Clearly, you are fine, yes?'

Sougo considered her with a tilted head, seemingly more awake. "Were you worried?"

"Obviously not, yes?"

He scoffed, turning again towards the ceiling. "Whatever."

Kagura pursed her mouth and they went quiet for a while. 

"I do want to go, though," Sougo admitted suddenly. "Sometimes."

She glanced at him warily. "Is it that hard? Being alive?"

"No. Just depressing."

Kagura’s brow furrowed. As if sensing this, he added, "But I’m not going anywhere."

"Because of your punishment?"

He closed his eyes. "I just have somebody I need to meet before I go."

Inexplicably, Kagura thought of the girl whose eyes she through in her dreams - the girl Sougo had met in a barn and had smiled at in an endless field of flowers, the girl he had looked at as if she were the most important thing in the entire world.

"Were they really special to you?"

Seconds passed without a reply, and looking up, Kagura saw that Sougo had fallen asleep, his mouth slightly parted, and hair falling over his eyes. She raised a hand to brush the strands aside, her fingers lightly tracing his cheek. She pulled back slowly, laying her head atop her arms on the couch, continuing to study him from the side. 

"Is she your somebody?" she whispered. 

But whatever he might’ve said to that, Kagura would never know, for soon after, she closed her eyes and the office faded into night. 

  


* * *

  


She found herself sitting on damp grass, a low pile of stones gathered beside her.

"Is running away that much fun?"

Kagura didn’t look behind her, continuing to throw stones across the lake. "Not really."

"Makes me wonder why you do it so much," said Sougo, taking a seat beside her at the edge of the lake.

"Who gave you permission to sit?" 

"The village elder," he replied smoothly. "I explained everything, and he told me where to find you."

"Traitor," she scowled, throwing her next stone harder than necessary. It plunged into the water with a great splash.

"Bad form," commented Sougo. He took a stone from the pile beside Kagura, weighing it in his palm. "My sister says that the trick is in the wrist."

He arched his arm back and tossed the rock - it successfully skimmed four times across the water before it tripped and was swallowed into the lake.

"Show off," Kagura muttered. The corner of Sougo's mouth quirked upward at this, and he glanced at her appraisingly. "Why didn’t you wait for me at the barn?"

She shrugged, picking up a gourd containing sake beside her. "I thought that when you came back, I would be arrested for sure."

"How do you know I’m not going to arrest you now?"

"I didn’t hear any horses," she said, taking a swig from the gourd. The alcohol seared as it went down her throat and she wiped her mouth with satisfaction. "I am sure a samurai has enough honour to not bother a woman sitting peacefully by a lake."

"A woman who stole my sword," he corrected.

"You didn’t look like you needed it at the brothel," Kagura sniped.

"Jealous?"

Kagura rolled her eyes. She unclipped the sword from her belt and tossed it in his lap. "Here. I am sorry for stealing it."

Sougo hummed, unsheathing the blade. It seemed to glow in the moonlight, illuminating the characters engraved into the metal. Kagura could not help but instinctively glance over at it as she took another sip from her gourd.

"The sun will rise," she read aloud.

He looked at her in surprise. "You can read?"

She turned red as she realised her slip up, and she quickly looked away. "…Not really. Just some stuff."

He continued to eye her strangely before he returned his gaze to the sword. "Do you know what it means?"

"What?"

"It’s a reminder. That even the darkest of nights come to an end as the sun rises."

Kagura frowned. "But that is obvious."

Sougo sighed, sheathing his sword. "Never mind. I guess you’re too stupid to get it afterall."

"Hey!" Kagura began to protest but was cut off when Sougo tossed the sword back in her lap.

"Keep it," he told her. "Maybe if you look at it every day you’ll figure it out."

She held the weapon suspiciously, giving him a once over with narrowed eyes. "Why are you being so nice?"

"Honestly? I’m really in the mood for sake."

"Fuck off," she glared, hugging her gourd to her chest. "This one is mine. And I came here to drink _alone._ Go away."

But not to be deterred, Sougo grinned and said, "I think I'll stay. Nothing beats this view, after all."

Kagura followed his gaze across the lake. The moon was full, its cratered surface rippling across the glassy surface of the water. Fireflies lit the scene as they drifted aimlessly back and forth, flickering in the air like gentle green stars. One floated in their direction and landed delicately on Sougo's open palm. His hands slowly curled around it before he gently released it into the air.

He grinned as she watched it go. "See? Aren’t you happy to see such a sight with another person?"

Kagura shook herself out of it. "No. The view is horrible now – You have ruined it for me forever."

"If anything I’ve made it prettier," he teased, looking off into the distance. "But I suppose you’re a little bit right. It's never going to look the same again." He lifted the gourd from her grasp. "After all, you won't find drinking alone nearly as fun anymore."

She threw him a scathing look. "And why is that?"

He glanced at her, lifting the gourd to his mouth. "Because you’ll always be waiting for me to show up like I did today."

The fireflies shifted in colour from pale green to bright gold as he tipped back the gourd, and unwillingly, Kagura found that her expression softened; because he was right - In that moment, the world did seem to be a little prettier than before.

And eventually, the sun rose.

  


* * *

  


Sougo’s office was bright when Kagura finally stirred from sleep, the air seemingly golden and soft. Feeling drowsy with warmth, she yawned and blinked her eyes open, only to almost scream in surprise when she found herself face to face across Sougo with only a few centimetres between them. 

She fell back, swallowing her shriek as she took him in and realised that he was still asleep. "Geez," she mumbled, taking a long deep breath to calm down. She’d fallen asleep by the couch and had completely forgotten about her close proximity to Sougo in the process. In addition to that, the sitting position she had been in had also been far from comfortable, and her back cracked with satisfying pops as she twisted from side to side with a sigh of relief.

Sougo continued to sleep through her stretches, and annoyed, Kagura eventually spoke up. "Oi," she said. When he did not wake, she reached out to shake his arm. "It looks like it is almost noon, yes? Wake up, idiot."

He finally groaned, turning over to bury his face in a pillow. "Can't you see I'm hungover?"

"Who told you to drink?" Kagura retorted, but she stopped shaking him. It occurred to her that this was their first sober conversation since their argument the day before, and she wondered whether Sougo would continue it once fully woken up. Cautiously, she asked, "Do you remember anything from last night?"

"Ugh," said Sougo, his voice muffled. "I think a monster broke into my office and beat me up."

She huffed. "Anything else?"

"I'll tell you when the room stops fucking spinning. Go away."

"Go away?" Kagura bristled. "I fell asleep taking care of your drunk butt, and this is the thanks I get?"

He sighed, going quiet for a long moment. "Whatever,” he spoke eventually. “I owe you, I guess."

She blinked. "Really?"

He turned back slightly to give her a dirty look. "You want it in writing or something?"

She scoffed. "What use is that, yes?" she said, but she was hiding a smile as she informed him very seriously, "I want dinner. And you're paying."

"Fine," he said, returning to his pillow. "Get back here by five. Don’t be late."

"What a brat," she muttered, getting up. "Try not to choke on your tongue before then."

Kagura had just opened the office doors to leave when she heard him say, "And thanks. For not letting me die."

She looked back, seeing that the tips of his ears were slightly red. She grinned. "That is my job as your human manager, yes?"

He grunted in reply, and she skipped cheerfully out of the office. "See you at five!"

Kagura took the elevator back to the lobby and strolled leisurely out of the hotel, planning to change her clothes at home before grabbing lunch from the ramen shop down her street. She had just taken one step outside the Hotel Del Sol's boundary, however, when her plans were dashed with the re-connection of her phone to the outside world, a series of rapid dings alerting her to fifty miscalls from Shinpachi and Otae combined.

She winced, pocketing her phone. Her roommates had her best interests at heart, but they easily worried for her, and not coming home without having let them know beforehand where she would be staying would've surely sent them into a panic.

Kagura caught the next train back to Kabukicho and walked quickly from the station up to the Shimura residence, muttering her excuses under her breath.

"I got called in for work and stayed the night," she practiced, fishing for her keys as she walked up the garden path to the house. "There was no signal. I am sorry I didn’t call..."

She stopped, hearing banging footsteps sounding from behind the door which suddenly swung open, revealing a harried Shinpachi. "There you are!" he said with relief, pulling Kagura into the house. "We've been calling for ages! Listen-" 

"Um-"

"Kagura-chan!" Otae appeared from the living room, hurrying to greet Kagura. "Where have you been? Ane-san told me that she saw you run headfirst into an _earthquake!_ Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

Kagura inwardly cursed the cabaret shrine maiden. "Anego, I'm fine," she tried to assure the other girl. "I was staying over at a friend's house, yes? That's why I didn't call."

"But the earthquake-"

"Aneue," interrupted Shinpachi, his eyes darting to the kitchen. "Don't we have another pressing concern?"

Otae's face pinched at this. In a low voice, she told her brother, "I've already half-convinced him to leave. She doesn't have to know."

Kagura looked between the two siblings, perplexed at the sudden change in mood. "Know what?"

"Come now, Shimura-san," a voice called from the kitchen, "Did you really think you would've been able to kick me out just like that?" A sound like a fridge door closing could be heard as a fourth person in the house made themselves known. He walked into the hallway, an armful of food held in the crook of one arm as the other waved to Kagura with an egg-salad sandwich in hand. 

"Hey, little sister," grinned Kamui, taking a cheerful bite from his sandwich. "Miss me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm! So!! Excited!!!
> 
> You guys ;;;;0;;;; I've been wanting to write this chapter for SO long and I'm genuinely so happy I finally get to share it! NOT ONLY DO WE HAVE MORE CRYPTIC DREAMS BUT WE ALSO HAVE KAMUIIII AHHHH! I'm so happy I managed to squeeze him into this story, and I hope you'll look forward to his later appearances! His and Kagura's relationship is just,,,, So. Dynamic. I can't wait!
> 
> Also, I don't think I ever said it and nobody ever commented on it, but I wanted to clarify in this end note that Okuni is actually a character from Gintama! I worried over the possibility that some of you may have thought she was an OC, but I actually want to avoid introducing unknown people as much as possible, so if there's a pre-written character from Gintama that fits well into a role I've written, then they will be making an appearance. It's why I also brought in Kada as a minor antagonist to Sadaharu's mini backstory, even though her character had no role in the anime's inugami arc. 
> 
> Speaking of which, I actually didn't intend to have Ane and Mone come into the plot, but as I was writing ahead, I actually went back and slotted in another chapter after this one, and their participation in it was necessary. This of course, means the story has once again expanded ;0; sorry guys. I tried very hard to cut down the og k-drama storyline since so much of it was unneeded, but some plots just have to happen :') 
> 
> I think I've said all I want to say abt this chapter, but before I sign off; I wanted to mention that 'We Lie With The Monsters Beneath Our Beds' has been getting a lot of attention recently, and I'm so honored! I've had people commenting on it quite a bit over the past few weeks, despite it being written like,,, two years ago, I think? Holy shit. I've been on a03 for two years, hhhh. Anyway, if there are any readers of Monsters here, I just want to say thank you for all the love and support that you guys have given it. I'm actually always going back and making small edits to sentences here and there just because I know that some people reread it and I get embarrassed ahhjdjhsfhj. Even after two years of writing experience, I know that I'm still lacking - but to know that people still enjoy a story even from my amateur days is very comforting, and your words truly encourage me to keep writing. Thank you all so much ;;0;; 
> 
> I hope you're all doing well! Once again, plz take care and be safe <333
> 
> \- Arasei


	9. Shocking Pink

Kagura's first real memory of Kamui was of him walking away and never looking back. He had been nine and she had been five.

Often, she had wondered, what kind of person could be so certain of what they wanted at nine years old? What did it take for a _child_ to be so confident, that they could abandon the comfort of their home and everything they had ever known without once turning around? Kagura would never be able to comprehend her brother; but every so often, she would remember the feeling of watching her mother die in a too cold house, and sometimes, she understood. But empathy did not absolve Kamui of leaving her when she had needed him most.

Fifteen years of zero contact later, despite Kagura having not bothered to track Kamui down to kindly inform him of their father's untimely death, he had showed up halfway into Kankou's funeral service to smack the monk's ass during his mantras and give Papi's portrait the finger. Kagura had yelled at him to get fucked and die in a badger pit and he had laughed and waved goodbye.

He made sure to visit her every few months after that.

"What do you want this time, Kamui?"

They were having lunch at a restaurant of Kamui's choosing, elected for their wide range all-you-can-eat buffet. Kagura liked to think she was of a species far removed from her brother, but even she could not deny that a shared love of food and an equally as large appetite were only two of the many things she had in common with him.

The appeal of the buffet, however, had quickly lost its charm after Kagura's seventh or so helping, and even the satisfaction of a full stomach did little to prevent the irritation of Kamui's surprise arrival from seeping back in.

"What?" spoke Kamui as he stuffed his face with yakitori. "You have somewhere better to be?"

"Anywhere is better than here," Kagura scowled.

Kamui managed to sigh around a mouthful of food. "What did I do to deserve such a brat of a younger sister?" he commiserated. "This is your fault, y'know - I'm only here because Abuto heard all about your little car accident yesterday and forced me to come check on you. If you hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"How nice of you," snapped Kagura. "But as you can see, I am fine, yes? Can I go?"

"You got a date?" 

" _Work,_ idiot. Isn't that where you should also be?"

Kamui perked up, suddenly interested. "Is it illegal?" he demanded hopefully. "Tell me it's illegal. I haven't made an arrest in over a week and the precinct is starting to look like a ghost town."

Kagura was rightfully offended. "I didn't join the Yakuza!"

Her brother pretended to be taken aback. "You didn't? From what I've heard, you get fired everywhere you work. The Yakuza should be the only place that would still take in your useless ass."

"Too bad," she growled. "I am not you."

Kamui finished a bowl of soup and set it down with a fake pout. "That's not fair. I'm different now - going straight and all that."

Kagura's lip curled. "I bet your girlfriend would say different if I asked her, yes?" 

"She wouldn't be able tell you," Kamui replied inconsequentially. He brought a plate of fried chicken closer to him. "We broke up last week."

Kagura rolled her eyes. "Again?"

He shrugged. "It was her turn to call things off."

She shook her head, disapproving but resigned. "You two are so... weird. How many times have you broken up?"

Kamui gave it some thought. "Twenty? It's a thing we do. She'll probably come running back soon."

Kagura snorted. "If she is smart, she won't."

"I'm Tokyo's best detective. What girl could resist?"

"You are Tokyo's best fraud, maybe," Kagura retorted. "I still think you joining the police force is a trick. You wouldn't quit your gang all of a sudden without a reason, yes?"

He flicked a chicken bone at her. "Call it a change of heart."

As she threw it back, she realised her phone was buzzing silently beside her, and she picked it up to answer the call.

"What is the point of owning a phone if you’re not going to pick it up?" came Sougo’s voice.

Kagura's expression pinched. "I am picking it up now, yes? What the fuck do you want?"

"Are you near Inokashira Park?"

She frowned, looking at her brother. "Are we near Inokashira Park?"

"Two train stops away," Kamui replied, and burped loudly.

Kagura returned her attention back to her phone. "Yes, I am."

Sougo's voice was impatient as he said, "I need you to look for something. It’s a red pouch, about as big as your hand. It should’ve washed up near the lake of the park, so start there - but whatever you do, don’t open it."

"Why? Is it porn?"

Kamui tried to snatch the phone from her hand, but Kagura dodged and leaned away.

"Funny," said Sougo. "But no, it belongs to a guest who came in last night. She's goddamn distraught, so bring it back fast."

Kagura sighed as she gathered her bag. "Fine. I’ll call you later." 

She hung up and said to her brother, "I'm out of here." 

"No way," said Kamui. "What makes you think I'm going to let you film a fucking porno?"

"It was a joke, moron," Kagura snapped, standing up. "You dragged me out here, so you can pay, yes?"

Kamui scowled. "Dining and dashing is a crime, y'know."

"So is stealing money from the evidence room," said Kagura sweetly. "But now that your super rich girlfriend has dumped you, you have no choice, yes?"

He threw a whole chicken leg at Kagura's face, but she easily ducked and slipped neatly out of the booth, dancing out the door.

She took the next train to Inokashira and began her hunt for the red pouch. There were no ghosts out and about, and she noted that while the sun was no longer at its peak, it was still bright and shining, which explained why their customer could not go searching for it on her own. Kagura diligently kept her eyes out for the pocket as she skirted along the bank of the lake, but after twenty minutes of searching, she was beginning to seriously regret agreeing to Sougo's request. The lake was huge and she hadn’t even made it halfway around. The pouch could've been anywhere.

After some time, the arrival of an expensive blue car in the distance distracted her from her inspection as it pulled up against the curb of the park and turned off. She was not surprised when Sougo stepped out from the driver's side door, wearing his usual suit but with the addition of dark sunglasses and the air of somebody severely hung over. 

"You look like crap," said Kagura as Sougo approached, echoing his words from when she had first stormed his office with complaints of a hallucination haunting her mind.

"I don't need to hear that from you," he scowled. "Where's the pouch?"

She scoffed. "Have you seen this lake? It's bigger than Shinjuku, yes?"

Sougo gaped at her. "You mean you haven't found it yet?"

Kagura was equally as flabbergasted. "You mean you did not come here to help look for it?"

"Fuck that. I've got a headache the size of goddamn Japan-"

"What about _my_ headache?" Kagura protested. "This lake is huge! I refuse to search for that stupid little pouch by myself."

Sougo looked to be on the brink of frustration. "It's what I'm _paying_ you for, you brat!"

Then what if I do find it?" she argued. "If you are not there, I might be tempted to open it, yes?"

His eyes darkened. "You wouldn't."

Kagura smirked. "Do you trust me not to?"

Sougo looked at her long and hard, but Kagura refused to yield. "Not at all," he grumbled eventually. He turned and led the way to the lake. "This is the worst day of my life."

Kagura caught up with him quickly. "Nobody told you to drink. And you have glasses, yes? You will survive."

He scowled. "Not on an empty stomach, I won't."

Kagura grinned smugly. "You want to hear what I had for lunch?"

"Not fucking really."

The childishness of his expression was so at odds with the warrior she had faced just yesterday, that she could not help but laugh at the absurdity of it. Sougo glanced at her briefly, his mouth threatening to twitch upwards in a smile, and any remaining tension between them from the day before was forgotten.

"Who were you having lunch with?" he asked her conversationally.

Kagura remembered that he must have heard her ask for directions to Inokashira Park. "My brother. We don't see each other a lot, but he comes to annoy me sometimes."

Sougo's step faltered as he turned to look at her in surprise. "You have a sibling?"

"He is not much of a sibling," Kagura grumbled. "I am closer to my roommates, if anything."

He frowned but did not press her for more information, and Kagura did not offer any more. They turned over fronds of reeds by the lake in silence, only speaking to affirm that the pouch was not stuck between the tall grass like they had hoped.

"Ugh," said Kagura, climbing out of the reeds. "This is gonna take forever, yes? What is the big deal with this pouch, anyway?"

Sougo flicked mud from his shoe. "It's a marriage pouch. They're used to arrange weddings for the dead."

"How does that work?"

As they continued their search along the edge of the lake, Sougo explained, "Typically, if somebody died single, their family would make one of these pouches and send it out into the world on their behalf - the unlucky idiot who picks it up and opens it becomes the bridegroom of the deceased." He went on to further add, "In this case, our customer's sister was the one to have made her pouch, and apparently, she sent it off into this lake."

Kagura frowned. "If our customer wants us to find it... Does that mean they don't want to get married?"

"Believe it or not, marrying a total stranger happens to be the last thing she wants to do."

Kagura stared at her companion, alarmed. "What if somebody has already found it?"

Sougo's smile was dark. "That somebody would have to relocate to the afterlife. Permanently."

"Like... _Die?_ "

"I told you it was an urgent matter."

Kagura's mouth fell open. "You should have told me that stuff earlier!"

She ran off to search even harder, hearing Sougo groan behind her as he tried to match her speed.

At the end of it, however, neither of them were able to find the pouch before the sun set. Both agreed that continuing their search in the dark would be too difficult, so they made an arrangement to meet early next morning to resume their search before parting ways for the night.

Kagura went home, yawning as she arrived and slid open the door. "I'm back!" she called into the empty house. There was no reply. "Shinpachi?"

She kicked off her shoes and ventured into the house with a frown, eventually finding her roommate tucked away in the back corner of the living room, his hands over his face. "Oi," said Kagura.

Shinpachi timidly spread out his fingers to peer between them. His eyes widened behind his hands. "Kagura-chan!" he cried in relief, and scrambled over on his knees to grab her leg and hug it tightly. "Thank God!"

Kagura stumbled a bit from the attack, gaping down at her friend. "What the fuck happened to you?"

Shinpachi made a noise, his eyes shut tight. "You need to promise you won't laugh!"

"I refuse," said Kagura flatly. "Just spit it out, yes?"

He gulped. After a moment, he whispered faintly, "There's a woman."

Kagura scoffed. "You are clinging to my leg because you got dumped? Pervert, get _off-_ "

"No!" Shinpachi hissed, holding on tighter to Kagura's leg. "I mean that there's a woman in this room, right now! Can you see her?"

Kagura raised an eyebrow, seeing for the first time the red string attached at his pinky finger. "Shinpachi, what is with that thing-"

"Just look!" he pleaded. "Tell me I'm not the only one who sees her!"

Kagura's eyes followed the string. They landed on the opposite corner of the living room where the other end of the thread was attached to the pinky of a thin, pale hand. Kagura sucked in a breath, raising her head to meet the eyes of a bespectacled, miserable looking girl who pointed sullenly to an open red marriage pouch on the table.

Kagura stared at it, realising what must have happened. She looked down at a still-shaking Shinpachi and winced. "Oh, fuck."

  


* * *

  


Her name was Kirara. She was a well-mannered girl, if not extremely shy, and as Kagura soon learned, she was only Shinpachi's age when she had died single and alone. While disappointed in lack of love life while alive, Kirara would've much preferred to carry on in the afterlife unaccompanied rather than spend her time attached to a total stranger. That, of course, had been dashed by Shinpachi's rather impromptu trip to the park, in which he had found a pouch by the bank and taken it home, only to open it and have a red string suddenly attach itself around his finger. 

As such, circumstances found Kagura walking up the long stone stairs to Ane and Mone's shrine the following morning with Sougo at her side, hoping beyond all hope that the sisters had a way of remedying Shinpachi and Kirara's little problem.

Kagura had just finished telling Sougo of how she had had to admit to Shinpachi the true nature of her job after explaining what she knew of the pouch.

"I think your friend took it well," Sougo commented idly. "Considering you told him you work at a hotel for ghosts and that he's now to be wedded to a spirit for eternity."

Kagura punched his arm. "It's not funny," she scowled, seeing his faint grin. "I am not letting Shinpachi marry a ghost. Anego would kill me!"

Sougo shrugged. "He won't have much of a choice if Ane and Mone don't come up with something."

Knowing he was right, Kagura could only bite her lip in silence as they passed by the torii gate to the shrine. It was a small and almost derelict looking temple, but had a homely feel to its wear and tear. What surprised Kagura the most about the shrine, however, was the familiar creature lounging by the steps in the sun.

"Sadaharu!" Kagura exclaimed, cheering up considerably.

The inugami's ears perked at her voice and he raised his soft fluffy head in excitement. Immediately spotting Kagura by the entrance of the courtyard, he jumped to his feet and bounded towards her like an overexcited dog, pushing and bumping at her hip with his huge head.

Kagura laughed, rubbing the inugami behind his ears. "I missed you too," she cooed, ignoring how Sougo scoffed beside her.

"Sadaharu!" a voice suddenly called out. "No maiming of our guests!"

A pretty girl in a miko outfit came out of the temple wielding a broom, but in recognising her visitors, lowered the brush in ease. "Oh, it's you two. Don't tell me you've come to take him back after only a day."

Sougo made a face. "No thanks. He's your problem now."

Sadaharu briefly lifted his head to give Sougo an unimpressed growl.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Then are you here to visit?"

"To ask for advice."

The woman assessed them for a moment before nodding. "Very well. Come in."

Kagura gave Sadaharu one last scratch under his chin, and they followed her into the temple.

"Is Ane-chan around?" asked Kagura.

"Sleeping," replied Mone. "She had a busy night at the club. Tried to outdrink one of her co-workers."

"Anego," muttered Kagura to Sougo, who merely raised an eyebrow.

Mone led them up a set of stairs and into a residential floor, where loud snores could be heard from further inside. It was obvious that Ane had had quite the night, and Kagura hoped that Otae would also remain asleep for some time; the longer Kagura could delay explaining Shinpachi's predicament to her other roommate, the better.

They came to sit down in a comfortable living room, where Mone procured cups from a cabinet and proceeded to pour them tea. "So," she began, sliding them their cups. "What is this about?"

Kagura took out the marriage pouch from her pocket and laid it on the table.

Mone blinked at it. "Is that what I think it is?"

Sougo's wry smile all but confirmed the shrine maiden's suspicion. "What do you know of them?"

Mone frowned, picking up the pouch to inspect it. "Marriage pouches are made of parts of the dead and wishes of the living. They are eternally bonding - The longer the human defies the string that ties them and their bridegroom together, the more painful their journey to the afterlife."

Kagura's eyebrows furrowed. "So how do we break the string?"

Mone looked up at her in surprise. "You can't _break_ the bond of a marriage pouch. Once it's been opened, there's no going back."

Kagura waited for more, but Mone said nothing else. Aghast at the other girl's lack of advice, she said, "That's it? Then what are we supposed to do?"

The group was silent until Sougo eventually shrugged. "I guess we throw a wedding."

Kagura scowled at the joke, but Mone did not laugh and Sougo's expression remained serious. She realised that the hotel owner hadn't been joking at all, and appalled by this, she slapped his arm.

"Ow!"

She hissed, "We can't throw a _wedding!_ "

Sougo rubbed his arm. "Why the hell not? The Hotel Del Sol offers a matrimony package."

"May I attend?" asked Mone with interest.

"No!" Kagura got to her feet. "I can't let Shinpachi get married just because he picked up something weird at a park!"

"You heard Mone," Sougo argued. "Whether you like it or not, your friend will die one day. It might as well be now, and fast. Who knows? He might even enjoy an afterlife marriage."

Kagura looked desperately to Mone. "There has got to be something else we can do, yes?"

Mone's expression was apologetic. "We are but human. Only a deity could cut through something like a string of fate."

"Then we find a deity! That should not be too hard, yes?"

" _No,_ " Sougo interjected. "Looking for a god is the worst possible thing you could do."

"This is my friend's life at stake!"

"Your friend sealed his fate the moment he opened the pouch," Sougo snapped as he stood up. His manner had grown strange, as if he were holding himself back from exploding. "We're leaving. Thanks for the advice, Mone."

Kagura followed Sougo indignantly down the stairs. "There has got to be a god out there that will help," Kagura insisted as they stepped outside. "Japan has plenty of them!"

"And how exactly will you convince them?" Sougo growled, still walking.

Sadaharu came to push at Kagura's arm, but she nudged him away. "I will explain the problem! They are gods, yes? It is their duty to guide us! If we just _ask_ -"

Sougo rounded on her with blazing eyes. "Nothing comes without a price, China!"

His last tether of self control had finally snapped. A snarl curled his lip, and for a moment, Kagura was stunned. Sougo seemed to sense this and forced himself to breathe in deeply. In a calmer voice, he said, "When you make a deal with a god, you had better be prepared to trade more than your life."

The courtyard seemed to fall into a bitter coldness under the severity of his expression. "Tell me, China," he said softly. "What exactly are you willing to sacrifice for your friend?"

She clenched her jaw, unable to answer. Sougo looked down on her, simultaneously victorious and disappointed. "That's what I thought," he said, and took a step back. He turned away and told her, "I'll prepare for the wedding at the hotel. Take the train back to Kabukicho and bring Kirara and your friend over once the sun sets."

Kagura's mouth pinched as he left. "Dammit," she murmured. Sadaharu nudged her arm again. She sighed, focusing her attention on the inugami. "What is it, boy?"

Sadaharu whined and turned to look over at the trees on Kagura's right. She followed his gaze, startling as a flicker of white flashed from between two thick trunks before it disappeared just as suddenly as it had come.

Kagura frowned and rubbed her eyes, but she did not see the flash of white again. Shaking her head, she gave Sadaharu a final pat. "It was nothing, Sadaharu," she told him, but her heart was not in it. Instead, she was thinking of how to comfort Otae once the older girl realised her brother was never coming home. "Just a trick of the light."

She left the inugami where he stood and began the trip back to Kabukicho.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently Okikagu day was like.... Five days ago ajskndkdjdkdk and of course, I did absolutely nothing >.< I finished this chapter a little earlier than I had intended to so that I could make up for it lololol, so I hope it kinda counts as a contribution? Sorry 😭
> 
> Also... Fair warning, but Kamui doesn't appear in this fic as much as I want him to. Don't get me wrong, his parts are excellent and v important, but I also don't want to disappoint you guys if he doesn't appear as frequently as you thought he would. I thought I would let you all now rather than let you down later 🥺
> 
> BUT IN OTHER NEWS!!! I had so much fun writing his convo here with Kagura, mostly because I really like the idea of him being a cop ajsknsjsjsj the role reversal is just so funny. Also because you've got Sougo, who actually is a cop but isn't in this AU lmaooo, it's pOeTiC iRoNy!! Totally not just me being self indulgent :D
> 
> Anyway, ya'll 👀 the next chapter is S P I C Y! Two very important conversations take place and hoooo boy. You guys will love it! Hopefully. Lol.
> 
> Thanks for reading! As always, take care and stay safe. Leave a comment below if you wanna scream at me abt anything :D 
> 
> \- Arasei <3


	10. Lavender Dusk

Kagura had expected to find Kirara and Shinpachi exactly how she had left them, sitting awkwardly across from each other at the dining table as they tried their best to avoid accidentally meeting each other's eyes. Instead, she was surprised to hear comfortable chatter upon coming home, and curious, she followed the noise to the backyard porch where the two were sitting and talking like good friends as they watched the last bit of sun slip behind the trees.

"No way," Shinpachi said with delight. "Did anybody ever reply?"

Kirara laughed into her hand. "I don't think anybody would've been bored enough to reply to something as silly as a message in a bottle."

They talked for a bit more, not realising that Kagura was leaning against the doorway behind them. "You two look like a very happy couple, yes?" she said dryly, causing them to jump and swivel to face her.

"Kagura-chan!" said Shinpachi before he quickly recovered. "Did you find anything?"

Kagura sat down beside them with a pinched expression. "I have good news and bad news."

"But not too bad, right?" Kirara put in hopefully.

Shinpachi leaned towards her eagerly. "What's the good news?"

Kagura's expression was serious. "The Hotel Del Sol offers a marriage package."

A shocked silence fell over Kirara and Shinpachi. They looked at each other, and said in unison, "Scissors." 

They scrambled to their feet, hurrying to the kitchen.

Kagura sighed and called after them, "There is no use, yes? I asked."

There was the rattling of a drawer from the kitchen. Ignoring Kagura, Shinpachi wailed, "I can't get married! I'm only twenty-three! I've got so much to live for!" There was a brief pause. "Uh - no offence."

"None taken," came Kirara's voice. "Hold still."

The sound of scissors opening and closing could be heard, but judging by Shinpachi's groans, the tool was doing nothing to help.

"I can't even drive yet!" He continued miserably. "I had a life plan!"

Kagura got up and walked to the kitchen. Kirara was desperately working the string between the scissor’s blades to no avail.

"I told you," said Kagura glumly. "There is no use."

Kirara looked up, her grip on the scissors going slack. "But..." she trailed off. She and Kagura both turned towards Shinpachi.

"You know, right?" said Kagura to her friend. "About what is going to happen to you?"

Shinpachi deflated, looking in the direction of Otae's bedroom, where she was still most likely sleeping. "Can I at least say goodbye to Aneue?"

Kagura's frown deepened. "She won't let you go. And it is already starting to hurt, yes?"

Shinpachi felt a hand to his chest. "How long do I have?"

She shook her head. "I don't know."

The silence in the kitchen was oppressive. After a moment, Kirara straightened and put the scissors down loudly on the counter. "I won't let this happen," she told Shinpachi determinedly. "I can't let you die just because you happened to find my pouch. We can try something else!" 

"Like what?" 

Kirara's eyebrows drew together in thought. "Well... What if we tried cutting your hand off?"

Shinpachi blanched at the suggestion and slammed the drawer shut. "Let's get married!” he announced.

"Shinpachi-kun!" Kirara protested. "A hand is not worth your life-"

But Shinpachi was already tugging her out of the kitchen, and they were out the door in seconds.

Kagura followed them, pausing as she passed by Otae's bedroom door. "Sorry, Anego," she bowed. "I hope one day, you will forgive me."

They left for the hotel.

  


* * *

  


Sougo was absentmindedly leaning against the doorway of the Hotel Del Sol's ballroom turned wedding hall when Kagura finally found him after almost ten minutes of searching. He had a vacant look in his eyes, and was looking over the room without actually taking it in. He didn't hear Kagura come up to him until she was only a few steps away.

"What?" Kagura said snidely, as she appraised the room. "Is there a bouquet missing or something?" 

Sougo did not have to reply; even to Kagura's inexperienced eye, the space was obviously immaculate. The ballroom's crystal chandelier had been dimmed over the newly set up circular altar in the middle of the space, and orbs of soft warm light hung low from the ceiling in crowded clusters, reflecting in the tall mirrored walls and across the glass floor. Kagura was reminded of a beautiful night spent in the light of fireflies and she flushed with sudden embarrassment. 

"Where did you get this stuff?" she grumbled, noting the lush path of white petals leading up to the altar. It looked lovely in the ethereal light.

"Kirara's sister happens to have a lot in her savings," replied Sougo idly. He seemed to not notice Kagura's reddened cheeks or the way her mouth fell open at his statement. "You told her sister?"

Sougo frowned as he finally glanced at her. "Somebody needed to pay for this wedding."

"What did you say to her?"

"That her marriage pouch worked and her sister is having a wedding."

Kagura was stunned. "She believed you?"

"She was the one to have sent out the damn pouch, China. Why wouldn't she have believed me?"

Kagura looked over the room once again. "So how much did she give you?"

Sougo gave it some thought. "A million yen?"

Kagura recoiled. "You spent a _million_ on this?"

"Don't be stupid, I spent six-hundred-thousand on this. The rest is going to the hotel."

"You mean your wallet."

"You did crash my Porsche," he reminded her.

She scowled, to which Sougo gave an answering grin (his first smile of the night, she reluctantly noted). "How are the couple to be?" he asked.

Kagura's sour expression deepened. "Getting ready. They have not said much to me, yes?"

"I'm surprised you even managed to get them here."

"Shinpachi basically volunteered," Kagura grumbled.

Sougo looked at her as she fell into silence. "It won't hurt him," he said eventually. "When he goes."

Kagura thought of Otae. "No," she said. "But it will hurt everybody he leaves behind."

Abruptly, she turned and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Sougo called after her.

"Out - I need air, yes?"

"The wedding starts in twenty minutes," he warned her, but she kept walking. 

She passed by Shinpachi and Kirara's room to let them know that she would be stepping out for a bit, but stopped outside the door as she caught the tail end of their conversation.

"Are you _sure_ you don't want to try?" Kirara insisted.

Kagura could easily imagine Shinpachi's pale face as he said, "I promise you, I'd really rather get married than cut my own hand off."

Kirara seemed unable to protest this, and they both fell into a guilty silence until Shinpachi asked softly, "Were you scared of dying?"

After a moment, Kirara admitted, "I was. But mostly I was scared of what would happen after - of being alone."

Kagura felt a rush of sympathy for the other girl. She was about to enter the room, but Kirara continued quickly, "I would still rather pass on by myself than drag an innocent bystander into my misfortune, but... I also can't help but be a little relieved." There was a rustle of clothes as she sniffed. "It's selfish of me, isn't it?"

There was a faint smile in Shinpachi's voice. "A little bit," he said. "But if the roles were reversed, I think I'd be a little relieved too."

Kagura closed her eyes and turned away with pressed lips. She resumed her journey to the first elevator and exited the hotel, taking a seat on the top step of the stairs leading down to the gated entrance. Her phone buzzed as it regained signal and she took it out with a sigh, scrolling through her contacts list. Her thumb hovered threateningly over Anego's name, and for a while, she tried over fifty different ways to say, 'Your brother is getting married to a ghost,' but even in her head, none of them sounded even remotely believable.

Annoyed, Kagura put down her phone with more force than necessary. "What am I supposed to _do?_ " she muttered, pinching the space between her eyebrows.

"You look like you need help."

Startled, she looked up and spotted a man standing at the bottom of the steep staircase. He wore huge praying beads around his neck and Buddhist monk robes that matched the white of his hair. It was an outfit that looked decidedly out of place in modern Shinjuku, and Kagura was struck with the man’s similarity to the reaper who had saved them the other night. However, while they might have shared the same hair and sharp features, the man before her carried himself very differently (authoritative in his manner as opposed to relaxed), and he had a long jagged scar across his face that was hard to not immediately notice.

Kagura stood up, feeling a tension in the air. She wasn't sure if the man was a reaper, but she knew without a doubt that he was no ordinary person. "Do you have business here?"

"Just you," said the man coolly. "I overheard your conversation with the Hotel Del Sol's owner at the temple, and my employer wishes to help with your predicament."

Kagura remembered the brief flash of white she had seen at Ane and Mone's shrine and she frowned. "Who is your employer?"

The man smiled wanly. "A benevolent deity," he said, and gracefully, he took out a pair of elaborate sewing scissors from his sleeve. "These are from him."

She peered at them, bewildered. "What am I supposed to do with those?"

"What do scissors do? They cut."

Kagura realised what he meant. "The string."

The man came up the stairs and stopped just a few steps beneath her. He held out the scissors invitingly. "Precisely."

Kagura reached out a hand to take them but paused. 

_When you make a deal with a god, you had better be prepared to trade more than your life._

She drew back her arm in suspicion. "What does this god of yours want in return?"

The man did not falter. "An equivalent exchange. He will speak to you when you're ready."

Kagura narrowed her eyes. "That sounds shady, yes?"

"Perhaps," he replied simply. "But wouldn't you say that your friend's life is worth the risk?"

Kagura bit her lip, but before she could properly consider the man's offer, a nearby clocktower rang seven o'clock. She quickly checked her phone, seeing that almost half an hour had passed since she had left Sougo's side. "Shit," she hissed. There was no time for a debate. She snatched the scissors out of the man's hands, and without even a word of thanks, she rushed back to the hotel lobby, running to the ballroom.

She burst through the doors. "Stop!"

Shinpachi and Kirara, who stood facing each other at the altar, spun around in surprise at her voice. The room was empty save for them, Sougo, and Kondou, who was standing in as an officiator.

Kagura ran up to them. "Try this," she said in a hurry, shoving the scissors into Shinpachi's hands.

Sougo sighed in exasperation. "Christ, China, I told you that regular scissors aren't going to cut it-"

"Just try," she interrupted, directing her words to Shinpachi. "It can't hurt, yes?"

Shinpachi looked from Kagura to the scissors to Kirara. "Do you want me to try?"

Her eyes were wide, looking like a deer caught in headlights. "I... I don't...."

Shinpachi's expression softened as he seemingly came to a decision. He returned Kagura's scissors. "Thanks, Kagura-chan. But it's okay."

Kagura took the blades back numbly. "But-"

Shinpachi tried to smile. "I've made up my mind."

Kirara blinked at this, finally snapping to her senses. She grabbed his hands. "Shinpachi-kun, wait! Think about what you're doing!"

"I can't just leave," he said. "Not when I have a chance and you don't. It's not right." 

Kagura noticed that the red string connecting them was glowing. The outline of Shinpachi's profile was beginning to warp and shift. He was beginning to take on the afterimage-like quality of spirits. "Shinpachi, don't be stupid! Look at you – you’re turning into a ghost!"

"She's right," Kirara pleaded. "No one is ever ready to die. Don't do this for your pride! Don't do this for _me!"_

Shinpachi's expression was impossibly kind. "Kirara-san," he said gently, "You won't be alone."

Tears gathered in Kirara's eyes and she squeezed them shut. She threw her arms over his shoulders to hug him tight. "Thank you," she whispered. "For being the last person to show me kindness."

She met Kagura's eyes over his shoulders. "But I can't let you do this." In one smooth move, she reached out to snatch the scissors from Kagura's hands and pushed Shinpachi away. He stumbled backwards in surprise and Kirara gave him a watery smile. "Goodbye, Shinpachi-kun."

Shinpachi tried to stop her. "Wait!"

The scissors closed on the string, and sound of the cut echoed throughout the room. The string was sliced in two, losing its glow. 

Shinpachi stumbled, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he fainted. Kondou reached out to catch him. "Woah!"

"Shinpachi!" Kagura cried, rushing to her friend. "Hey! Don't tell me you died anyway!"

"He's breathing," Kondou told her with relief. "I think his life force returning so suddenly just sent his body into shock."

Kagura looked down at his pale cheeks. "Will he be okay?"

"He'll be fine," the older man assured her. To Sougo, he said, "The sun's gone down. Should I take him home?"

Sougo nodded tightly, and Kondou slipped Shinpachi's arm over his shoulder. Kagura half expected the latter to fall through the bartender's form, but while he seemed to involuntarily shiver at the touch of a ghost, Kondou was surprisingly tangible enough to able to support and carry her friend out of the room with ease.

Sougo appraised Kirara in turn. "It's a lonely journey to the afterlife."

Kirara's eyes were a little red, but she steeled her expression. "I'm ready."

She gave back the scissors to Kagura and said softly, "Thank you. I'm sorry for all the trouble I've put you and your family though."

Kagura swallowed down her guilt and bowed. "Good luck."

As Kirara turned to leave, Sougo muttered to Kagura, "The pool. I want to talk."

She frowned but nodded. They left the wedding hall together and split at the entrance, Sougo and Kirara going left and Kagura turning right for the pool.

Upon reaching it, she found that the day had only just begun to end in the artificial beach, despite the real world having already fallen into night. The scenery was uncharacteristically empty, and Kagura sighed as she took a seat on one of the lounge chairs. She turned the scissors over in her hand, her thumb running over the beautifully engraved handles. "It worked," she muttered. _But at what price?_

The sun was halfway below the horizon when she finally began to hear Sougo approach behind her.

"Where's Kirara?" she asked as he took a seat on the lounge chair beside her.

"I escorted her to the Sanzu River,” he replied shortly. “She should be halfway across the bridge to the afterlife by now."

Kagura's eyes almost bulged. "The bridge is _real?_ "

Sougo's eyes narrowed. "It's my turn to ask questions, don't you think? Who gave you those scissors?"

She frowned at the suddenness of his interrogation. "I don't know. Some person's servant was the one to pass them on after hearing us talk about Shinpachi at Ane and Mone's temple, yes?"

"Then tell me about the servant," Sougo questioned impatiently. "What did they look like?"

Kagura tried to recall. "He was tall and wore white fancy robes. He also had white hair, like the man who saved us and Okuni. But-"

"He had a scar across his face," Sougo finished, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I told you not to go making deals with deities, and you singlehandedly indebted yourself to the worst one."

"Why?" Kagura pushed. "Who does the man work for?"

Her companion forced himself to exhale as he looked over the sea. "You'll meet him eventually. We all do."

"How?"

After a moment, Sougo said softly, "Everybody dies one day." Kagura raised an eyebrow at this. He continued, "When you do, you're escorted across the Sanzu River, where the ten kings of the underworld will pass judgement on your life." 

He looked at Kagura. "Of all the kings, he's the one you should be most afraid of."

She scowled at him petulantly. "Don't try and scare me. All he did was give me scissors."

"Scissors with the power to cut a string of fate," Sougo reminded her. "A god of the underworld wouldn't just hand something like that over."

"Well, whatever," said Kagura, putting away the scissors. "I will deal with it later. Shinpachi is alive and that is what matters. There was no other way of saving him, yes?"

Sougo leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "I guess. Not even a contract could've done it."

"You mean like how it saved Papi?"

He smirked faintly. "That's right."

Kagura's expression pinched. "But what if it could have? What would Shinpachi have had to do? Sell Anego?"

"A life for a life," Sougo agreed. He saw the disgust in Kagura’s expression and rolled his eyes. "Don't make that face. The law of the spirit world demands equivalent exchange, and the life of a human is a precious commodity - it's only fair."

 _An equivalent exchange._ Kagura was made uncomfortable by the reminder. "Why don't more people agree to these contracts?"

"It only works for the _dying,_ not the dead,” said Sougo pointedly. "When your father walked in here on accident fourteen years ago with a bullet half buried in his chest, he still had a chance - and that chance was you."

Kagura went quiet, and for a long while, neither said anything as they watched the rise and fall of the ocean waves. 

"He was a private detective, y'know," she said, breaking the silence. "I used to think it was super cool, but that was before I knew how dangerous it was, yes?" She huffed, kicking up little tufts of sand. "Idiot. Things could have been so much different if he had been more careful fourteen years ago."

Sougo seemed to be collecting his next words in his mouth. He responded, "I saw you once, when you were a kid."

She glanced at him in surprise. "It was a few days after your dad agreed to my contract," he continued. "You were wearing a red Chinese dress, yelling at him to stop running around before he re-opened his wound." His voice was a little bitter as he added, "He walked by the hotel gate five times without knowing as he tried desperately to find it."

He finished plainly, "For what it’s worth, he loved you."

Kagura willed herself to look away. "I know. He would not have made that deal otherwise, yes?"

Sougo seemed a little intrigued. "Is that how you see it?"

"Of course. He was a shitty father, but because of that deal, we were able to spend thirteen more years together." she considered this information thoughtfully. "I guess... I have you to thank for that."

"Most people sold into life servitude don’t usually say thanks," said Sougo dryly.

'No," Kagura agreed. "But even if I could have stopped him from making that deal, I wouldn't have. There is nowhere else I would rather be but here."

She saw Sougo's breath hitch in his throat, but almost immediately it was swallowed down, and he turned away. "Seriously," he scoffed, but she thought she saw a fond kind of wonder in his eyes. "You're really something, China."

Kagura's cheeks went warm at the words, and she abruptly turned away as well. "I never asked about this 'China' nickname, but it had better not be because of my dumb dress from when I was seven, yes?"

Sougo relaxed at the change of subject. "You'll never know."

By then, the sky had expanded into a multitude of different colours, bright pinks deepening into lovely oranges and purples. "I haven't seen a view like this in a while," Sougo commented idly.

"It's pretty," admitted Kagura. "Prettier than it was before." 

Sougo's answering grin was sardonic. "You wouldn’t have found it nearly as nice if I hadn’t shown up."

He said it jokingly, but the words caused Kagura's heart to skip a nervous beat.

_Because you'll always be waiting for me to show up like I did today._

She took him in with wide eyes as he watched the sun breathe its last and dip behind the horizon, casting the world into shades of cool blue. Kagura could almost imagine the sea as a glittering lake and the stars above them as fireflies.

'How do you know it wasn't real?' Yoshida Shoyou had asked her. The answer was simple - she didn't. But as she glanced at the sword at Sougo's hip, she knew at once how she could prove the validity of her dreams once and for all.

"The sun will rise," she spoke aloud. Sougo met her eyes in surprise and she clenched her jaw. "That is what the writing on your sword says, yes?"

Sougo stared at her. "You can't have known that by reading it," he said slowly. "It's man'yogana script-"

"I did not have to read it," said Kagura, feeling more and more weighted by her realisation. She exhaled and continued, "You were the one who told me. Or at least, the you in my dreams did."

The hotel owner frowned, suspicious of her words. Kagura averted her eyes as she continued, "Lately, when I sleep I see these... moments of you from long ago. You were a samurai, yes? And you loved somebody - a girl. You met her in a barn -"

Sougo grabbed her wrist, twisting her around to face him. His eyes were wild. "What did you say?"

"Hey! Let me go-"

"Say it again!"

Kagura tried to twist free of his grasp. "You met her in a barn! She stole your sword and you chased her down, but once you found out that it was to help people, you let her go!"

His grip around her wrist tightened. "How could you know that?"

"I told you! I see when I sleep! I don't fucking control it-"

Sougo pulled her up roughly by the arm and pushed her back. The world twisted and Kagura fell backwards onto plush bedding as Sougo landed on top of her. They were in the four poster bed of his bedroom.

Kagura kicked him in the shin. "What the fuck are you doing, pervert?!"

"I'm checking this for myself," snapped Sougo in reply and let go of her wrist which he had pinned above her head. "Go to sleep."

_"Now?"_

"Now," he confirmed, sitting back. "I want to make sure you're not making this shit up from rumours you might have heard from the others. You said you need to sleep to have the dream, right?" He bent low over her face. "So go. To. Sleep."

Kagura's breath hitched and she shoved his face away. "I can't sleep just like that, idiot! And I don't know whether I will have another dream like that again even if I do, yes?"

Sougo crossed his arms. "Then you'll stay here until you do."

"No way!"

"Go to sleep while I'm still being nice, China," Sougo growled. You don't want to know what will happen when I'm not."

She scowled and grabbed one of the plush pillows behind her, lobbing it at his face. "Try it! I don't care, yes? Whether or not you believe me, I know I am telling the truth!"

Sougo clenched his jaw, breathing hard. "Fine," he said finally, and got off the bed. "Do whatever you want." He crossed the bedroom and threw his doors open, storming out into the adjoining office. Kagura scrambled to follow him. 

"You know what I think?" she began accusingly. "I think you are embarrassed that I saw your past, yes? You only _wish_ I was lying."

Sougo dug around a tall cupboard behind the couch and unearthed a bottle of sake. He ripped off the lid and drank from the lip of the bottle, walking away from her towards his desk.

"Do these memories hurt you that much?" Kagura demanded, catching up to him. "Is that girl from your past the person you have been waiting for?"

He roughly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Shut up if you know what's good for you, China.

Kagura stamped her foot. "I won't! This is my problem too, yes? Who is she?"

Sougo slammed the bottle down on the desk and spun around to face her. "You tell me! I can think of only one reason why you would be able to see my past - and that's if it were _your_ past too."

Their faces were inches apart. "So, you tell me," Sougo repeated, his voice low. _"Who are you?"_

Kagura's gaze hardened. "I am myself.”

His mouth curled into a snarl. “Bullshit-"

“Like hell it is!" she shouted. "Why are you getting mad at me when this is _your_ fault?"

He scoffed in derision. “ _My_ fault?”

“Yes! I only started to have these dreams after _you_ kissed me on the train!”

Sougo looked as if he had been slapped. "That’s not how it works-"

"It must be!” Kagura yelled back. “You must have infected me with your memories or something, yes? Whoever that girl is, I am not her!"

Sougo's expression was livid. "How could you possibly know for sure?"

"Because from what I saw, she really loved you," snapped Kagura without hesitation. "I don't feel that way about you at all, yes?"

His jaw tightened as he seemed to process this. Kagura waited in silence until eventually, he said in a more yielding voice, "She didn't."

Kagura blinked. "Didn't what?"

He turned away. "She didn't love me."

"Then what were you to her?"

Sougo's voice was bitter. "Who knows."

Kagura's mouth pursed. "Well, you seemed to really like her, yes?"

He leaned back against his desk, taking the sake bottle back into his hands. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know what I saw!” Kagura argued. "I have never seen you smile that much, yes? You liked her enough to not arrest her, and you gave her your sword."

Sougo grit his teeth. "Enough, China. Or you're going to regret it."

Kagura scoffed. "How can you make me regret it, huh? You won't pay me? Well, too bad. I already signed a billion of your stupid contracts-"

"I said _enough!_ " he shouted.

Kagura was stunned into silence.

Sougo breathed out. "Starting tomorrow, you're working with Yamazaki at the door." He didn’t look back at her once as he walked back into his bedroom with his sake bottle in hand. "You're dismissed."

Kagura regained control of her mouth. "I see why you say that girl didn't love you!" she called after him spitefully. "Who would love a super sadist, yes?"

He slammed his doors shut. Kagura made a rude gesture at his room and left the office. She exited the hotel with her head held high and cursed Sougo all the way to the train station. "Bastard," she muttered. "Am I supposed to feel sorry for him? All I did was tell the truth!"

She stopped at a traffic light and waited, scuffing the pavement with her shoes a little regretfully. "...How was I supposed to know those dreams were real?"

The light turned green and she sighed, crossing the road. She saw that on the other side, a man stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the night sky. "Weirdo," said Kagura under breath, but paused as she took notice of his long pale hair and traditional yukata. "Hey!" she called, recognising him. "You are the guy from the train, yes?"

The man gave her no acknowledgement. Kagura frowned, coming to a stop before him. "Oi. Can you hear me?"

The man gave a soft sigh. "For thousands of years, these stars have watched loyally over the earth," he said, still gazing upward. Flecks of the night sky were reflected in his colourless eyes. "Hundreds of civilisations have risen and fallen in that time as humans forget the lessons they've learned and betray and turn on each other every century."

He smiled coldly. "What a beautiful sight it must be."

It occurred to Kagura that while the man's face was completely identical to Yoshida Shoyou's, everything about him could not have been more different - from his parted fringe, to the way he held himself, to the cold sharpness of his eyes. "You're not Shoyou," she said slowly.

"No," the man confirmed, as he finally turned to look at her. "Although, I should have known that my kinder counterpart would have also paid you a visit. Out of the ten of us, Shoyou is the most interested in Okita-kun's wellbeing."

Kagura scrutinised him carefully. "Ten of us..." she repeated, and it dawned on her. "You are one of those kings. You and Shoyou."

He mockingly inclined his head. "My name is Utsuro. I trust my scissors served you well?"

"So they were from you," said Kagura, taking the scissors out from her pocket. Utsuro held out a hand to receive them, but before she gave them back, Kagura continued with narrowed eyes, "Your servant said you wanted an equivalent exchange in return for them."

"Ah, that's right," Utsuro mused. "A life for a life is the usual deal - especially for use of the scissors of fate."

Kagura awaited her verdict with a clenched fist, but Utsuro suddenly smiled. "However," he said, surprising her, "I'm feeling charitable. And besides, we haven't had such a heartbroken soul come to us in such a long time. I must thank you for that."

Before Kagura could demand an explanation, he suggested, "How about I take a minute of your life?"

She was stunned by the proposal. "A minute?'

Utsuro continued to smile down on her. "You're a very important person, Kagura-san. A minute of your life is just as valuable to me than some ordinary soul."

She frowned in suspicion. "How?"

"Why are you so surprised? After all, it takes an extraordinary person to work alongside a killer."

Kagura stared at him. "You mean Sougo?"

Utsuro pretended to be confused. "You didn't know?" He questioned with false innocence. "How odd. Doesn't it make you wonder what else you haven't been told?"

Her jaw tightened. "You're lying."

Utsuro leaned in. "Did you think that sword of his was just for show?" he prodded with a cunning gleam in his eyes. "With that very blade, he once wiped out an entire kingdom - and now, he pays the price."

Kagura thought of Sougo as he was faced against the inugami and of the vision she had had of him, of his armour stained in blood, his expression feral and eyes wild. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You're the new human affairs manager of the Hotel Del Sol, Kagura-san. It wouldn’t do for you to not have all the facts."

With more confidence than what she felt, she retorted, "Employees don't need to know everything about their boss, yes? I don't care what you say." She gave back the scissors. "Thank you for your help. You can take a minute from my life. Sixty seconds do not matter much to me."

Utsuro's hand curled around the carved handles. "A lot can happen in a minute."

Kagura said nothing about this, merely moving to walk past him. 

"Someday soon, Kagura-san," he called after her, "You'll see that I'm right. About everything."

She did her best not to look back, but found herself unable to resist. When she did, however, the deity was already gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May I present to you: the longest chapter I've ever written :')
> 
> Thinking back, I probably should have merged the beginning with the previous chapter, but I realised that a little too late. Although, I post so infrequently that you guys probably appreciate the length (at least, I hope so)? Anyway, how about that SPICE I promised you, huh??? The bed scene alone is probably one of my proudest moments asdfgdfg. And Oboro! And Utsuro! I was so excited to bring them in and now they're here aHHH!!! The minute being taken from Kagura's life! Also what could Sougo mean by dream girl not loving him?? SO MUCH IS HAPPENING ASHFKJKJ
> 
> There's a lot more stuff I want to address from this chapter, but I would love to hear everybody's theories! You've all been so lovely in the comments and I appreciate it so much ;0; I know I say it a lot, but you guys really keep this story going, so thank you!
> 
> I hope you've all been well! Plz take care, and wherever you are in the world, have an amazing day!
> 
> \- Arasei <3


	11. Permanent Violet

Kagura was running late. 

Her agreement with Sougo had been to meet at the festival entrance an hour before sunset, but she had not accounted for the time it would take for her to get ready - and it had taken far longer than she had thought it would. 

The occasion of the night's festivities had called for a kimono, but the girl from the village who had lent Kagura her spare had also insisted on styling her hair into a neat, ornate bun despite her protests, and on the application of light makeup to her eyelids and lips. The current immaculate nature of Kagura's appearance was an almost uncomfortable reminder of the past she’d left behind, but tonight, she felt undoubtedly beautiful, and she gave mental thanks to the girl as she hurried on, her pretty sandals slipping in the dirt. 

She had thought that Sougo might have already moved on to the festival by himself after growing tired of waiting for her, but upon reaching the stone staircase leading up to the festival street, she found him still standing dutifully by the large torii gate. He was dressed casually in a bright red kimono top and plain gray pants, his long hair tied up in his usual ponytail and trailing loosely over his shoulder. He was looking up at the bright lights above them with something like faint amusement, the glow of the night softening his features. Even after almost half a year in his company, Kagura's heart still reluctantly skipped a beat at the sight of him.

Almost as if Sougo had heard the treacherous thud, he turned away from the sky and met her gaze quite by accident. His eyes widened briefly at her kimono, causing Kagura’s hands to self-consciously curl around the ends of her sleeves as she approached.

"This is why you took so long?" he asked when she came to a stop before him.

"Why?" she said. "Does it look bad?"

He swallowed, an almost imperceptible movement that Kagura would've missed had she not been already staring at the line of his neck. His hand twitched as if to reach out and touch her, but at last second, he crossed his arms and nodded at the sheathed katana slung over her back. "That doesn't go with it."

Kagura reached behind her back to touch the sheath. It was the same sword that Sougo gifted her months ago on that fateful night, and he almost certainly recognized it. He was right about it not suiting her kimono, but truthfully, she didn't feel quite safe without it. As if hearing this, Sougo finally caved in and took her hand, his palm safely encompassing her own. "It suits you," was all he said, but it was enough to make her smile. Together, they ascended the stone staircase.

It was early night, and the street was alive with colour. Red and orange lanterns hung above the moving crowds of people exploring the festival, all dressed in colourful kimonos and their finest yukata. Children ran in between legs, screaming with delight, and the smell of food in the air was tantalising. Kagura had never seen such a celebration and she was enthralled.

Sougo watched her take in the scenery, his mouth quirked into a half-smile. "I didn't think you'd be so excited over a festival."

"Shut up," said Kagura, but she felt far too much in awe of her surroundings to mean it.

"So?" said Sougo. "What do you want to do first?"

She turned to him and grinned. They went to almost every stall, sampling foods and trying out games, accumulating a mass of prizes through a combined effort of cheating and skill. At a ring throwing stand, Kagura went as far as to crawl over the counter to strategically place their rings over the stall's throwing poles while Sougo distracted the owner, a joint effort that successfully won them a giant harisen fan. They proceeded in this way for quite some time until people began to catch on to their games and started shooing them towards the end of the street. They retreated from a stall they hadn’t been able to con, laughing hard all the while. 

"Alright," said Sougo, still chuckling, "Who’s next?"

Kagura caught sight of a game stall and grabbed his hand. "There!"

She tugged him over, pushing and pulling against the crowd until they emerged before an archery stall. "I've always wanted to try this!"

Sougo handed the owner a few coins. "You've never done it?"

"Never," affirmed Kagura. She would've liked to have tried archery, but her brother had only allowed for her to be trained by the sword, and at the time, she hadn't had any will to argue against him. She refrained from mentioning this to Sougo, however, as he rolled back the red sleeves of his kimono, exposing long pale forearms. "Want me to teach you?"

Kagura blinked, quickly averting her gaze from the sudden reveal of skin. "No way! It should be easy enough."

He shrugged, accepting a bow from the owner. "Your loss."

Kagura took her own bow and examined the back of the stall. Various prizes had been evenly lined up against the wall for the purpose of being shot down with blunt sticks as substitute for real arrows. Kagura took one of the sticks between her fingers and lined it up to her bow, pulling it back as she aimed. 

"You're going to miss," said Sougo casually.

Kagura scowled and let go of the stick with a sharp twang, only for it to fly in-between two prizes and bounce off the wall. Sougo fell back and howled with laughter, and she kicked him in the leg. "It's not funny!"

"It's pretty funny," he responded with difficulty, wiping away a tear. "God, you're stupid."

"Hey!"

He was still snickering as he forced himself to straighten and take a stick. "Alright," he said, lining it up against the bow and pulling back the bowstring with the confidence and skill of a master archer. "Watch this," he said, and let go. Kagura gasped as the stick flew out and shot down a wooden mask with perfect precision. 

"You did it!" she crowed. "You actually did it!"

Sougo accepted the mask, carved and painted to resemble a red oni. He handed it to her with a grin. "Try not to sound so surprised." 

They left the stall with their new prize, which Kagura wore beside her head. As they walked back the length of the street, he asked, "You've really never been to one of these before?" 

Kagura sighed. "No. It was always too hard to sneak out."

He glanced at her in curiosity and she realised her mistake. "Ah! I mean, finding the time to go out in between chores was hard. They were very hard to escape."

He raised an eyebrow. "Chores, huh? So the bandit had a normal life before she took up thievery."

"I wasn't born a thief," she scowled. "And I was not planning on being one; but I felt sorry for those people, and I didn't know how else to make money."

Sougo scoffed at this, but to his credit, he did not rebuff her either, something for which Kagura was grateful for. Instead, he nudged her shoulder and said, "You hungry?"

She sighed in relief. “Starving.”

He grinned. “I have an idea.”

Without waiting for her to respond, he led her through the packed street until they emerged out the other side in the town center and continued to lead her up the main road. “Aren’t you supposed to be taking me home?” Kagura asked him dryly, though she followed without hesitation.

“We’ve got time,” said Sougo airily. “I’m sure the Shogun won’t mind if a few steamed buns go missing from his kitchens.”

Kagura stopped. "The... Palace?”

Sougo also came to a halt, raising an eyebrow at her. "I thought you would've liked that."

When Kagura said nothing, he asked, "Are you scared?"

Her lip curled into a snarl. "Don't be stupid."

Sougo offered her his hand. "Then let's go."

Kagura frowned at it for a long moment, but eventually sighed and took it. They continued walking, and soon enough, she was able to spot the golden tiled roofs in the distance, the entire building seemingly glowing beneath the moonlight. She expected for Sougo to keep marching them towards it, but to her confusion, he suddenly led her off the main road into an offshoot alley, journeying further into the quieter part of town before stopping at a small home nestled beside a public bath house.

"This does not look like the Shogun's kitchens," said Kagura.

"Did you really think they would let a thief in through the front gate?" He retorted. Kagura's eyes widened at the implication and she reached around her head to hurriedly tug her mask over her face as Sougo knocked twice on the door. It was shortly opened by a plain man whose expression brightened at Sougo's face.

"Captain Okita! Are you..." his voice trailed off with the realisation that Sougo was accompanied by a demon mask-wearing woman. "Er, what brings you by?"

"She's with me," Sougo clarified, stepping into the house without prompt. Kagura raised an eyebrow at his rudeness but followed without comment, hearing the door shut anxiously behind her.

The inside of the house was small and equally as boring as its homeowner. In Kagura's opinion, there was absolutely nothing of interest to look at, but Sougo's attention was fixed on a fraying rug in back corner of the room. The plain man followed them further inside and continued in an uneasy voice, "I really shouldn't be letting her in." His eyes glanced obviously towards the katana slung over Kagura's back, causing her hand to automatically reach up and protectively grip the handle. "Especially with that."

"The sword is mine," said Sougo as he pushed aside the chair atop the rug, which he pulled back to reveal a barely noticeable trapdoor. "She's just holding onto it for me."

Kagura tried not to show her astonishment over the hatch. "You gave it to me," she corrected, causing the plain man to titter nervously once again. Unsure of who to believe, he settled for asking Kagura, "What's with the mask?"

"I have an eye condition," she snapped in return. "Who are you? Why shouldn't I be allowed in?"

Sougo ignored this exchange, and instead, took hold of the trapdoor's thin handle and tugged hard, lifting the apparently heavy door with effort until it had swung back completely on its hinges. Kagura glanced back at the sound and saw a metal ladder descending into a square of darkness below the opening. "There," he said, and straightened as he looked at Kagura. "You coming?"

She rolled her eyes and moved towards the door. "If I end up in a dungeon, you will be very sorry," she informed him, and let herself down into the hole by the ladder. 

The climb was short, and at the bottom rung, she jumped and landed on an evenly paved stone floor. Above, she heard Sougo assure the plain man, "She's not a murderer, Tozuka - It'll be fine."

With those parting words, he also descended the metal rungs and joined Kagura on the ground. He searched the space around the ladder and came up with a used lantern, lighting it with a flint stone from his pocket. "Got it," he called up.

The plain man sighed but gave him a thumbs up from above and disappeared. Shortly, the trapdoor closed shut, plunging them into a darkness broken only by the light of the lantern. Kagura looked around, seeing that they were standing at the end of a long stone tunnel, the other end being too far for her to glimpse. "C'mon,' said Sougo, instinctively threading his fingers through hers.

As they walked, it became evident that the tunnel was not just one length of road, but rather made up of other intersecting tunnels coming together as a complicated labyrinth that Sougo navigated with familiar ease. Kagura realised it must have been a journey he took on an almost daily basis. 

Eventually, they came across a set of stairs that led up to a nondescript wooden door. "Ready?" said Sougo.

Kagura frowned. "Are you going to kill me as I walk through?"

"One of these days, I might," Sougo retorted as he pushed open the door. 

Kagura lifted her mask from her face and peered curiously over his shoulder, finding herself pleasantly surprised to see that they had not come out into a dungeon, but rather a well lit and spacious kitchen pantry about as big as two wealthy barns combined. "Oh," she said.

Sougo shook his head and gestured for her to go in. "C'mon. This isn't our final stop."

She gave him a skeptical look as she shuffled into the pantry. She saw that the secret passage they had taken had forced them to enter through the back, and that the actual front door across the other side of the room was a considerably larger and more ornate structure. Sougo directed her towards it, leading her past crates and shelves stocked to brim with food. "There's so much of it," Kagura mumbled, eyeing the shelves. "Enough to feed villages. I never knew."

"We're not stealing from here," said Sougo firmly.

Kagura scowled at him. "Then from where?"

Sougo reached to pull open the front doors. "I know somebody who works in the kitchens. This wing should be empty around this time of the night, so-"

"Sou-chan?"

Both Sougo and Kagura froze at the voice. The door had swung open, but the corridor had not been empty as Sougo had hoped. A slight woman stood on the other side holding onto an empty basket, her eyes wide with shock. She wore peasant clothes, and her light hair (Sougo's hair, Kagura noted) was tied up in a low bun befitting her apparent station as a servant.

"Aneue?" spoke Sougo, seeming equally as stunned as his sister, whose gaze was flicking back and forth between him and Kagura.

"Er," said Kagura. "Hello."

"Hello," the woman responded in a daze. She blinked and shook her head, hurrying forward into the pantry before closing the doors shut tight behind her. "Sou-chan!" she scolded, rounding on Sougo. "Out of all the places-"

"We were just hungry," he whined, surprising Kagura - she had never heard the captain sound so docile. "Honestly, it's not as if she's here to kill the Shogun."

The woman frowned at this, but it seemed to Kagura that the downturn of her mouth was actually just a product of her trying hard not to smile. She met Kagura's eyes and bowed in apology. "I'm very sorry about my brother," she said kindly. "I would've liked to meet you at our home instead of a pantry, but as you can see, I've done a terrible job at raising him."

Kagura could not help but grin. "Don't worry. I think he was just born rotten."

"Hey!" protested Sougo.

His sister beamed widely and clasped Kagura's hands. "It's lovely to meet you. My name is Mitsuba."

Half an hour later, Kagura and Sougo were coming out of the plain man's house with fruit and bread laden pockets that had been empty before their trip to the palace. "I like her," said Kagura through a mouthful of apple. "She's very nice. And anybody who can tame you is amazing in my eyes."

"God, look at you," said Sougo, ignoring her words in favor of wiping her dripping mouth with the corner of his sleeve. "I know you're a pig, but at least act normal when you're wearing a kimono like that."

Kagura stuck out her tongue. "Why aren't you as nice to me as you are to your sister?"

"Because you're not my sister," he replied easily. Kagura shoved his arm with her shoulder, turning her face away so as to hide her smile. 

Sougo walked Kagura to her village and up the entire length of road to the entrance. 

"Thank you," she said once they had arrived.

"For what?" said Sougo.

Words crowded Kagura's mouth, sentences she was too embarrassed to say but wanted to tell him in response. _For taking me out. For walking me home. For loving me so hard that sometimes it's hard to see straight._

"For introducing me to such a great person," she said finally.

Sougo scoffed. "That's it?"

Kagura hesitated. "Well..." 

Sougo caught on, his expression softening. He reached out to cup her cheek, and slowly, he bent his head and closed the gap between them with a kiss.

Her eyes fluttered shut at the familiarity of his touch, her hands coming up to hold onto the soft fabric of his kimono for balance. It was strange - in her mind, a kiss from him should've been passionate and hard enough to bruise; instead, it was gentle to the point of warmth, the kind of kiss that could pass along words that went unsaid. When he pulled away, he nudged his nose into her cheek and breathed across her skin, "You're welcome."

His hand fell from her face as he turned and walked away, his figure disappearing into the night. Kagura watched him go in a daze, pressing a hand to her mouth. "Damn you," she said with a smile. 

She spun on her heel and moved to skip into the village but paused as she heard a rustle from behind a close-by tree. Kagura frowned, one hand coming up to rest on the handle of her katana. She was used to odd noises from the neighboring forest as the local woodland animals tended to be more restless at night, but there was something ominous about the sound just then that gave her pause, and soon she realised why.

Human eyes were blinking back at her from the dark.

Kagura resisted the urge to jump back in shock. She stood straight, unsheathing her sword with a graceful flick. "Who's there?"

The eyes blinked again and disappeared. One by one, multiple figures melted out from the shapes of the trees, coming out of the dark and into the weak light of the moon. The leading figure lifted his hood and bowed low. Kagura's blood ran cold upon recognizing him.

"Your Highness," he said. "It's time to go."

  


* * *

  


"Shit," said Kagura, holding onto the edge of the front desk counter. The entire hotel was shaking from what felt like the aftershock of an earthquake.

"There goes the customer in 186," Yamazaki noted aloud, but while he did it for Kagura's benefit, the effort was unnecessary. In the week since she had been employed, Kagura had become well accustomed to the ghost's almost daily tantrums, and the novelty of the experience had long since worn off. She merely waited for the hotel to settle before stretching lazily over the counter with a sigh. "It's been a week," she pouted. "I'm bored."

"It's only morning," Yamazaki soothed from where he sat beside her on a high chair. "It's rare, but business might pick up during the day." His demeanor was of somebody perfectly cheerful as he jotted various notes down in a book, a sight that irritated Kagura immensely. She told him exactly so and he smiled. "I take it Okita-san is still mad at you?"

She huffed, resting her cheek against the counter's cool marble. "Forget mad. He is completely avoiding me, yes? Everywhere I go, he is never there."

"He'll get over it," said Yamazaki reassuringly. "Surely whatever happened between you two wasn't that bad."

Kagura frowned and wondered if Yamazaki would have said the same if he had known what she and Sougo had argued over. She was continuing to see her dreams with increasing frequency, but was no closer to finding out their meaning or how to stop them, and she did not have to speak to Sougo to know that he wouldn't be pleased about the lack of development.

For an entire week, she had been replaying his reaction to her dreams in her head over and over again. It had been beyond the embarrassed anger one would expect - he had been almost terrified. The mysterious girl must have had something to do with his elusive past; and perhaps even something to do with his punishment. 

_Doesn't it make you wonder what else you haven't been told?_

"Zaki," Kagura spoke up, "What is the sadist being punished for?"

The receptionist almost dropped his book. "That's sudden!" he voiced in a high pitched tone. "W-why do you want to know?"

Kagura raised an eyebrow. He suddenly reminded her of somebody, though of who she could not recall. "Just curious," she said. "Nobody here tells me anything. But we are friends, yes?"

Yamazaki gulped. "I'm just a receptionist-"

"That is not a no," Kagura pointed out.

He worried his lip, eyes darting back and forth. 

"Zaki..." said Kagura, with false sweetness. "Should I tell Hijibaka how you have just been writing 'anpan' over and over in that book of yours?"

Yamazaki snapped his book shut, but the damage had already been done. He met Kagura's smug gaze and groaned. 

"So?" she prodded.

After a long moment of deliberation, Yamazaki sighed and reluctantly leaned in. "Okay," he said, causing Kagura to also lean forward eagerly. "You didn't hear it from me; but Sougo is - or _was_ a warrior. In his time, he took thousands of lives." He paused before adding in a more hushed voice, "A crime like that isn't so easily forgiven by the ten kings."

Kagura was not so much stunned by the news as she was dispirited by the fact that Utsuro had likely not been lying. "So it's true," she mumbled.

Yamazaki cocked his head. "Did you already hear it from somebody else?"

She shook herself out of it. "No. Never mind. Then it wasn't to do with a girl?"

"A girl?"

"A princess," Kagura tried. "Know anything about that?"

If possible, Yamazaki seemed to grow more uncomfortable. "He served under a Shogun - I suppose a princess could have been involved."

Kagura frowned and went silent.

The receptionist gave her a sympathetic look. "You really want to talk to him, huh?"

She huffed and propped her chin up in her hand. "What I want is for somebody to tell me the whole truth, yes?"

"Only one person can do that," her companion replied knowingly, to which Kagura only snorted. After a moment, Yamazaki continued, "Well... The ghost of Room 186 was quite rowdy just a bit ago."

"I remember," Kagura grumbled. "So what?"

" _So,_ " continued Yamazaki enticingly, "Okita-san would've gone to calm her down. He's the only one who can, after all. If you're lucky... You might be able to corner him as he comes out of the room.

Kagura's eyes widened. "Zaki," she said, jumping to her feet. "That is not a bad idea."

Yamazaki's chest puffed at the compliment as she grinned and circled the counter. "Thanks. I'll be back!"

She took the lift to the lobby and crossed the grand room to the second elevator for the guest floors. She kept her eyes out for Sougo on her way, but did not so much as catch a glimpse of him before the doors closed. "It's not like I want to see his face," she muttered as the elevator rose. "I just want to ask him questions, yes?"

She tried hard not to think of the way their hands had naturally intertwined in her dream, and of the way her fingers tingled at the memory. She shook the feeling out of her hands and continued aloud, "I'm not his girl. I'm _not._ "

She was afraid of what it would mean if she was.

The lift opened onto the long corridor of the 13th floor. Stepping out of the elevator, Kagura began to walk the length of the hallway, counting out the room numbers on either side until she came to a stop at 186. She was mildly surprised to find that like the other guest rooms, the door was a rich, smooth white with painted gold accents. It did not look as if it were containing a hostile ghost on the other side, nor could Kagura hear any immediate voices. Suspicious of Sougo having already left, she pressed a curious ear against the door and was startled to hear the sound of a girl's faint crying.

Kagura straightened and knocked on the door in alarm. "Hello? Are you okay in there?"

The crying only grew louder.

Kagura knocked again, feeling more panicked. "Hey!" she called, trying the doorknob of the door. To her surprise, it swung open easily, revealing not an expansive guest room, but a long stone tunnel. 

"Hello?" she called, her voice echoing back and forth. The crying suddenly stopped. She shuffled forward a little nervously. "Sadist?"

There was no reply. Kagura bit her lip and checked behind her. The hallway was unsually empty, but then again, their guests tended to sleep their way through the day. Nobody saw her as she walked fully into the tunnel, the door swinging shut behind her. 

Unlike the comfortable and paved secret tunnels from her dream, the one before her was short in height, as well as damp and muddy underfoot. The passage was long and only traveled straight, and at the end of it, a rusted heavy metal door awaited her. Whatever was on the other side was clearly meant to stay locked up - but Kagura could easily not dismiss the distressed crying she had heard earlier. Ignoring the instinctive urge to turn back around, Kagura unbolted the door and shoved it open with her shoulder. 

Strangely, it opened into a broken down cafeteria hall. Artificial sun glowed down from above ruptured rafters onto the traditionally styled room. Long tables and benches lay scattered and in pieces across the open yet dirty space. It would've looked as if it had been ravaged by a natural disaster if not for the small wooden closet that stood oddly untouched at the center of all the debris.

"Anybody in here?" spoke Kagura into the room. Something in the closet shuffled in response and her eyes widened. "Uh," she said, taking a step into the hall. "I heard crying, yes? Are you okay?"

There was no response as she approached the closet, but as she came closer, she noticed a stick of incense burning strongly before the furniture on the floor. "Hello?"

A loud creak suddenly broke the air as the closet door swung open slowly. Kagura faltered mid-step and came to a stop. Her breath caught in her throat.

A thin, bony hand crawled out from the closet, the skeletal fingers curling around the edge of the door. Black smoke oozed out of the closet like a rolling thundercloud, causing Kagura's hair to stand up on end. Every instinct in her body screamed for her to run, and yet her feet refused to move. The door opened further-

_"Kagura!"_

Like a switch had been flipped, she snapped out of her daze and spun around. Sougo was striding towards her, breathing hard as if he had run very fast in a short amount of time. He swung an arm over her shoulders and forced her towards the door. "We're leaving."

Stunned by his sudden appearance, Kagura tried to resist. "What? Why?"

"Just shut up and don't turn around-"

He was cut off by a piercing scream from the closet.

On impulse, Kagura glanced backwards before Sougo grabbed her shoulders, wrenching her around to face him. "What did I just say?!"

"But-"

Behind her, the closet door slammed open. Sougo's eyes widened, and unable to stop herself, Kagura's head tilted back to look. She saw as much as a thin body half hidden in a terrifying cloud crawling out the closet before a hand grabbed her chin and jerked her back. "Hey!"

Sougo's eyes were blazing when she looked up to meet them. _I warned you,_ they seemed to say, before he roughly brought his mouth down on hers. 

Kagura's mind went blank. Her hands instinctively came up to his chest, and for a moment, it seemed as if her body was going to shove him away, until she registered that the feeling of cloth between her fingers was from her hands twisting into his jacket to pull him closer.

Sougo growled at the movement and tilted his head to deepen the kiss, and Kagura let her herself fall into the sensation completely, rising up on her toes to meet him. She did not notice the dark cloud that passed above their heads, nor did she hear the bang of a metal door slamming against a stone wall. All Kagura could think of was the rightness of him against her, and his lips on hers.

"Sougo," she murmured into his mouth.

The sound of her voice seemed to drag Sougo back to the present, and it was with the faintest reluctance that he slowed and he pulled away. His pupils were blown wide, and his expression was searching as he scanned her face, looking for something that may or may have not been there. It was the first time Kagura had seen him in a week and she suddenly realised how much she had missed him. But almost as if she had voiced the thought aloud, Sougo's face darkened. "Idiot," he said, and all thoughts of missing him disappeared. 

Kagura scoffed and smacked his hands away from her face in indignation. " _Excuse me?_ "

"Idiot," he said again, in a more furious voice. "There's a reason why only I deal with the ghost in this room and it's because humans literally go insane if they so much as make eye contact with her, and you fucking walked in here alone. Tell me, China, do you have a death wish?"

Kagura hit his chest as hard as she could. "How was I supposed to know that, yes?! I only came in here because I was looking for you! This would not have happened if you hadn't avoided me for something that is not even my fault!"

Sougo's jaw clenched. "We've got other problems for now," he said, looking to the metal door of the entrance. "Neither of us locked the door."

Kagura blinked and looked around. The closet was eerily empty, and the room was devoid of other people beside themselves. "She's gone?"

The hotel owner breathed out through his nose in evident frustration and took out his phone, quickly dialing a number. "Hijikata-san," he said once the general manager picked up. "We have a problem."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We got not one, but TWO kisses AHHHH!!! I know I was pretty bad at describing them but you can bet I had a lot of fun writing them ;D
> 
> Also the amount of CLUES that were dropped in this chapter alone omg ajksfkjdkkj, it'll be so much fun to reread once everything's been revealed. There's hints, there's foreshadowing, so many little things that add up to one big picture! If you guys want to have a go at catching them all, lmk what you found in the comments and I might help you piece them together 👀
> 
> Once again, I'm SO sorry that it took almost two months for me to update. I'm working full time now and I'm already so over it ajkkjgfkjk are we rlly supposed to live like this for the rest of our lives?? Jeez. I used to really love drawing but now that it's become my job, I've grown so much less fond of it hhhhh. I've been in a creative block for a while now, and I haven't posted anything on insta in months. But ngl, I feel so much better after finishing this chapter. It's been slow going, but I'm really glad that I write as a side hobby. It genuinely keeps me sane and I never appreciated it as much before as I do now. I might even start drawing on the side again lmaoo, if you guys wanna follow me, you can find me @araseiidraws.
> 
> In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the fic! you've all been so patient and kind, and I could not have asked for better readers, or to be part of a better fandom. I can't wait for the content resurgence that will come with the movie release, I'm so ready!
> 
> Hope you've all been well! 
> 
> Love, Arasei <3


	12. Ultramarine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's for dwindy. Sorry for telling you I would be updating soon only to post a month later 💀

Room 186 was tense with almost palpable anticipation as a reaper lazily circled the closet previously occupied by the room's guest. Sougo stood beside the furniture with crossed arms, closely watching the other man inspect the scene. The crow, as Sougo preferred to call him, was the same white-haired man who had rescued he, Kagura, and Okuni only a few weeks back. Gintoki, Yoshida Shoyo had called him.

Kagura and Hijikata observed the two men quietly by the door to the broken down room, waiting for them to finish. "How did you get this guy here?" asked Kagura in a low voice. Gintoki did not seem like the type of person (supernatural or otherwise) who could be summoned on a whim.

The general manager replied, "I waited by the Sanzu River until somebody showed up." At Kagura's raised eyebrow, he went on to clarify, "Ghosts who don't wish to stay at the hotel before they move on are escorted directly by the reapers that find them. This idiot happened to be the first one I came across."

Kagura surpressed a smile as she looked back at the pair by the closet.

"How long did you say she's been staying here?" asked Gintoki.

"Almost fifteen years," Sougo answered. "She wasn't mentally fit to stay on as staff so we've just been making sure she's comfortable."

The other man tutted. "She's been biding her time. Not only is she smart, but she's powerful too - no tracks were left behind."

"Can you still find her?"

Gintoki gave the hotel owner a mocking smile. "She's a guest of the Hotel Del Sol, and one that escaped under your direct care - it's out of my jurisdiction."

Sougo scowled. "You can't be serious."

Hijikata rolled his eyes. "Here we go," he muttered.

The reaper folded his arms behind his back with a smug grin. "How's your detective work, Okita-kun?"

Sougo ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "So that's it? You won't even give me a hint?"

"Look to her history. Maybe you'll find something." He added in a more serious tone, "But I would hurry if I were you. If you-know-who gets to her first, there won't be a guest for you to save."

Sougo fumed in silence as Gintoki gave him a mocking bow and turned to the entrance, walking past Hijikata and Kagura out the door without so much as a word of goodbye. 

"Out of all the crows," spat Sougo, "You brought that one."

"He was the first one to show up," said Hijikata. "Not to mention the one you like best."

Sougo snapped back, "The weird one that likes anti-nationalists would've been more helpful. At least _he_ would've had information.

"Then find him yourself," Hijikata retorted, and followed Gintoki out. "This is also out of my jurisdiction."

Sougo scowled and slammed the closet door shut with a bang. After a moment, Kagura asked, "Won't our guest eventually come back?"

"She's a spirit hell-bent on revenge, not a goddamn dog," said Sougo. He seemed to come to a decision and brushed past Kagura as he went out the door. "You stay here. I'll be back later."

Kagura followed him. "Where are you going? She could be anywhere, yes?"

"It's not even your problem, China-"

"It is!" she insisted. "You are right - it is kind of my fault."

Sougo stopped walking and met her gaze, causing her face to flush a deep red. It had been easy to forget about the kiss when Hijikata and Gintoki had been with them, but that was no longer the case and Kagura was having great trouble with looking at anything other than Sougo's lips. She coughed and added hastily, "Kind of. And I want to help. If you do not let me come with you, I will just go by myself and probably get into more trouble."

"And what makes you think I won't handcuff you to a wall?"

"I will just scream for the gorilla," she announced. "I can be very loud, yes?"

Sougo looked as if he wanted to strangle her, but to his credit, he only closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. "Fine," he said eventually.

Kagura flashed him a triumphant grin and he rolled his eyes, stalking away.

"So?" she asked. "Where do we start?"

"The hospital," Sougo replied shortly.

Kagura's eyebrows furrowed. "Is that where you think she is?"

"It would be convenient if she were," responded Sougo dryly. "But we're not going there to look for her."

"Then why are we going?"

An odd smile came over him. "Because where there are dead bodies, there's a crow pecking at the remains."

  


* * *

  


Kagura had no standard to compare Great Edo General to, but even for hospitals, Kabukicho's one and only medical center was a wild hub of activity. Patients and guests alike competed to be the loudest in the building, and it took almost everything Kagura had to not be trampled by busy nurses running back and forth down the corridors.

She stuck close to the hallway walls, occasionally peering into a room but otherwise wandering aimlessly through the building. She had thought that Sougo would have had some sort of plan to find his reaper, but upon their arrival at the hospital, he had only suggested they split up to cover more ground.

"What are we looking for?" she had asked, to which Sougo had replied, "Somebody as close to death as possible. A crow should be waiting with them - that's who we want to talk to."

Searching for one was easier said than done. Great Edo General was less a hospital for the dying, and more for idiots who had accidentally eaten a bad batch of spoiled crab, or gotten something stuck far up their ass. Nobody looked close to impending death, and nobody happened to look like a reaper. 

From what she had seen of Gintoki, they did not have the afterimage shimmer that ghosts seemed to project, and neither did they carry themselves in any special way. The only telling thing about Gintoki himself had been his white kimono and the bokuto she had seen attached to his hip. She hadn't seen anybody equally as odd since leaving Sougo's side, and she was quickly growing weary of the search.

The next ward that Kagura peered into seemed to also be void of anything unusual. A family was gathered around a cheerful old man sitting up on a hospital bed. Nobody was dying, an observation she found herself unreasonably annoyed by. She tried to look around the cluster of people to see if the patient was afflicted by a life threatening disease, but she must have been more obvious than she thought, for one of the family members, a man with long black hair, cast her a long and suspicious glance. She stuck out her tongue and moved away.

Once Kagura had checked the whole floor, she waited by the vending machines next to the check-in counter, where she had agreed to meet Sougo.

"Maybe I should just kill somebody," she mused, inserting a coin into the machine and choosing a cherry soda. "That would definitely attract a reaper."

"Please don't," came Sougo's voice. He approached her with a dry expression. "The paperwork for murder victim customers is hell on earth."

She frowned at him. "Where did _you_ go?"

"The ICU."

Kagura obtained her soda. "And?"

"And nothing," he said, looking similarly put out. "Everybody is perfectly stable and well on their way to recovery. We'll have to check the other floors."

Kagura cracked her can open and drank from it heartily. Sougo scowled. "Don't you look like you're having fun."

"I don't see why we have to rush, yes? It is not like she is an escaped prisoner."

Sougo raised an eyebrow. "You think her bolted door was there to make the place look pretty?"

Kagura scoffed. "So what? Are you saying that I would have really lost my mind if I had looked at her in the face?"

"She's a temperamental ghost who hates all of humanity, China. Take a guess."

Her mouth fell open. Before she could say anything, a man rushed into the room in a panic, crashing into the check-in counter. "We need a doctor!" he yelled, his brown mop of hair seemingly vibrating around his ears. "My father is having a seizure!" 

The nurses sprang up immediately, and there was a rush of frantic activity and shouting. Kagura met Sougo's eye, and she threw her half drunk can of soda in the bin. They followed the staff down the hall and watched them rush into the room with the family Kagura had peered into earlier before.

The old man in the bed was thrashing back and forth, his eyes rolled into the back of his head. The nurses got to work pushing everybody outside. "We'll bring you back in when he's stable," one of them assured the family. Strangely enough, they did not bother pushing out the man with the long black hair who Kagura had stuck her tongue out at. He stayed in the room with his hands calmly folded within his blue kimono sleeves, and the doctors went about their business seemingly unaware of his presence. Now that the other family members had evacuated the room however, she saw the end of a sheath by the other side of his hip.

Kagura gasped. "He's a reaper!"

"The worst one," Sougo confirmed, his expression sour. 

As if hearing them, the man looked in their direction and frowned. Now that Kagura was paying attention to him, she saw that like Gintoki, his features were handsome and striking but in a more delicate, almost feminine way.

Sougo gave a jerk of his head, implying that he wanted to speak outside. The man looked displeased, but he pointed to the ceiling in response. Sougo sighed and took Kagura by the shoulder. "C'mon," he said. "We'll wait on the roof."

They took the emergency staircase up to the open roof. It was wide and empty, and provided a high view of Kabukicho. They left the door open behind them and went to the railing, which Kagura leaned against with a sigh. "Can this guy really help us?"

Sougo crossed his arms. "The crow will know something. He has a fondness for terrorists, and our runaway customer has a history with them."

Kagura frowned at him. "What kind of history?"

He closed his eyes. "The kind that demands revenge."

All of a sudden, Kagura felt a little bit sick. Sougo said nothing more, and she was forced to let the conversation drop as they watched the sun sink further down the sky. Almost an hour passed in restless silence before Sougo muttered, "We're running out of time. If we don't catch her before dark, she'll be a danger to everybody outside of the hotel, not to mention herself."

Kagura could not help but ask, "Why would she be a danger to herself?"

Sougo's lips pursed. "Our guest is a pure soul. She's never taken a human life, but if she finds her target and gets to them before we can stop her..."

"She will kill them," Kagura realised. "And turn into a dark spirit."

Sougo's jaw clenched. "The Ten Kings don't forgive so easily."

"You would know best," spoke an unfamiliar voice. A figure formed out of the shadow cast by the door and turned into the reaper from downstairs. He approached them and added, "Although, from what I've heard they've been unusually kind to you."

Kagura frowned. "What does he mean?" she asked Sougo, but her companion merely scowled.

"You sure kept us waiting, Zura," said Sougo. "Does it really take an hour to cart off one old man to the river?"

"It's not Zura, it's Katsura," said the other man with dignity. He seemed to be a little embarrassed to add, "There was a complication with the soul. He refused to come quietly so another reaper has been sent to collect him."

"So he ran away," observed Sougo. "Lucky us."

Katsura scowled. "How did you find me?"

"A little bird told me a while ago that this area happens to be your pecking grounds." Sougo leaned back into the railing and continued, "I need information. What do you know about the Sokai Faction of the anti-nationalist movement?

The reaper looked stunned by the sudden question. "What business do you have with a dismantled terrorist group?"

"It's hotel business," said Sougo shortly. 

Katsura's lips pursed. "I didn't support them, if that's what you're thinking," he said, almost offended. "I admit that I admire the passion of anti-nationalists, but the Sokai Faction were mere extremists without a goal. The destruction they wreaked in Tokyo fourteen years ago was unfathomable - thanks to them, we reapers were working overtime for months."

"Fourteen years ago..." murmured Kagura, who had been confusedly following the conversation. Her eyes widened as she suddenly understood. "I remember them! My Papi was working as a private investigator and found that they were using an inn as a hideout. He worked with the police and went after them."

Sougo seemed surprised by this, but before he could say anything, Katsura picked up from where Kagura left off. "The inn was raided, but the entire faction resisted arrest and was slaughtered. A family that was being held hostage was also caught in the crossfire." He narrowed his eyes and added, "I personally escorted their leader to the underworld for his crimes. He won't be bothering you as a guest."

Sougo tore his gaze away from Kagura to look back at the reaper. "An extremist faction such as the Sokai won't have died with just one man. Where can we find their new leader?"

Katsura crossed his arms. "What's this really about, Okita-kun?"

Sougo matched his expression. "I could tell you, or I could spare you some overtime work. You're about to have a few extra souls on your hands unless you give us a location."

"And what will you do with it?" the reaper pressed. "A word of advice - you've almost slipped up one too many times over the past few weeks, and the higher-ups have noticed. If you don't want your centuries of atonement to go to waste, I suggest you don't do anything reckless and heed by your contract."

"And what of _your_ contract, crow?" Sougo hissed, taking a step closer. "Aren't reapers meant to be free of all earthly attachments?"

Katsura lowered his eyes. 

"Don't lecture me about rules, Zura," said Sougo. "Not when you're haunting a ramen shop every other week. If you won't tell me anything, then I'll find my information someplace else."

He made to move past him and Kagura followed. They were almost at the door when Katsura spoke up softly, "Tendou Soutatsu. He's the new leader of the Sokai and will likely be in one of the warehouses by the southern docks, following in his older brother's footsteps. He has a group with him."

Sougo nodded curtly. "Thank you."

"And it's not Zura, either," the reaper corrected once again, annoyed. "It's Katsura."

Sougo snorted. "Sure. Say hi to Ikumatsu for me."

He and Kagura descended the stairs and left the hospital, getting into Sougo’s car. They had been driving for quite a while before Kagura finally spoke up.

"Rokkaku Kirie," she said softly. Sougo's hands tightened on the steering wheel and she looked at him. "She is the ghost of room 186, yes?"

After a moment, he asked, "How did you know?"

Kagura stared out her window, watching the afternoon sunset flash by in between buildings. "A good guess. My Papi told me she was the daughter of the family being held hostage in the inn."

Sougo did not answer immediately, apparently deep in thought. "Your father found the hotel fourteen years ago," he began slowly. "That would be around the time of the raid."

Kagura's mouth pinched. "He almost died that day," she confirmed. "I guess I have the Sokai Faction to thank for my new job, yes?"

The corner of Sougo's mouth lifted in a small imperceptible smile that slipped almost immediately as he caught sight of the slowly darkening sky. "Shit," he said. He changed gears and the car sped faster.

They soon skidded to a halt by the docks and Sougo threw open his car door, not bothering to close it behind him before he took off in the direction of the warehouses. Kagura followed close behind as they navigated their way through a maze of stacked shipping containers. Night had fallen by now, and the weak light of the docks was their only light source.

The two ran with only a vague sense of direction until suddenly, the maze was thrown into a further darkness, like a black blanket had been thrown over the world, swallowing every light whole. They skidded to a halt, instinctively finding each other in the dark.

"What is this?" Kagura panted.

A piercing scream reverberated through the docks in answer. Sougo unsheathed his sword.

"Wait by the car!" he yelled to Kagura, and took off running in the direction of the scream.

"But-"

"Do it!"

Kagura faltered as she watched him run ahead. It's out of my jurisdiction, Gintoki had said. This was out of hers. 

She had just taken a step back when a man came running out between the shipping containers to her left, his expression panicked. "Help me!" he screamed, throwing himself at Kagura's feet. He had long golden hair and his face was pallid. "There's a girl back there in one of the warehouses! She tried to kill me!" he tried to grasp at Kagura's skirt, but his hands went uselessly through the fabric, causing a wave of coldness to pass Kagura's skin. He looked at his faded fingers with fear. "What is this?" he trembled. "What's happening to me?!"

Kagura felt dread build in her stomach as she finally noticed the afterimage like shimmer around his figure. "You're dead," she said faintly, looking in the direction Sougo had run. "We're too late."

Her feet moved. Ignoring Tendou's pleas for help, she ran the same path Sougo had made and eventually stumbled into the warehouse district. Sougo was standing by the large doorway of the nearest building, his sword limp in his hands as he stared at something inside.

"Sougo!" Kagura cried, running up to him and grabbing his arm. "Someone is already dead-"

But Sougo did not look at her. She followed his gaze and felt breath stolen from her. Several bodies littered the ground, bloody and broken. In the midst of it, a man with pale hair held a young girl up in the air by her throat. Kagura watched her feet kick uselessly mid-air, and her fingers claw desperately at his hands. Cracks began to snap across Kirie's skin under the touch of his grip. Like a shell, she was falling apart.

"Rokkaku Kirie," said the man softly. The girl gasped as the cracks spread to her face. "For the crime of taking a human soul, you have been judged."

"Wait!" screamed Kagura, taking a step forward. Sougo pushed her back as Kirie took her final breath and exploded in a shower of ash. A black feather drifted quietly to the ground.

The man bent down to leisurely pick it up, admiring the oily shimmer of it in the weak light of the warehouse. He added it to the cloak of feathers he wore around his shoulders.

"She deserves a real trial," Sougo spoke up coldly. For the first time, the man looked at them. For a moment, Kagura only saw Yoshida Shoyou standing before them, looking no different from when she had seen him last, excepting the morbid cloak. But she was quick to recognise the cold glint in the man's eye.

Utsuro gestured to the bodies around him. "What is the point? Look at the carnage she has wreaked. Her punishment is clear."

"The underworld has ten judges," spat Sougo. "She's not an accessory that you can just add to your cloak."

Utsuro looked over him with a false smile. "Are you hoping that my brothers will give her leniency as they did for you?"

He approached them slowly and Sougo pushed Kagura further back until she was directly behind him. Her fingers curled into the back of his jacket.

"Make no mistake, Okita-kun," Utsuro whispered, leaning in. "You're on borrowed time. One day, you'll slip up - and I'll come for you too."

There was a gust of wind, and when Kagura opened her eyes, the man was gone.

  


* * *

  


The drive back to Kabukicho was grave and silent.

Kagura hadn't spoken a single word since getting into the car - she kept thinking of Kirie cracking and turning to ash underneath the man's touch. And in addition to that...

_The Ten Kings don't forgive so easily._

_You would know best._

_I'll come for you too._

"Ask me," said Sougo suddenly, causing Kagura to jump in her seat. His eyes were trained on the dark road ahead of him. "Whatever it is that you want to ask. You look like you're about to burst."

She thought of denying it, but felt the excuse dying on her tongue. She did not look at him, but she steeled herself in preparation regardless. "You are a dark spirit. Aren't you?"

Sougo did not have to reply. 

Kagura fixed her eyes on the lamp posts racing past the window. "What did you do?"

He breathed out quietly. "You won't be able to un-know it."

The worst part was that she knew he was right. "Maybe," she said, her voice tight. "But I deserve to know, yes?"

His fingers tapped slowly on the steering wheel. "Do you know what it's like to be betrayed?" 

Kagura thought of her brother leaving her behind without another word. "Yes."

Sougo gave a humorless laugh. "Then maybe you'll understand." 

She finally dared to glance over at him, but it was his turn to not meet her eyes. "I was captain of Shogun Tokugawa's guard," he began finally. "My whole life was centered around his protection. I was good at my job - but I was young and stupid. I trusted somebody that I shouldn't have, and the Sun Kingdom fell to ruins because of it."

"That's your crime?"

"No," he said, a sardonic expression overcoming him. "My crime was after."

Kagura forced herself to ask. "What did you do?"

His hands were vice grips on the wheel. "I slaughtered the entire neighboring kingdom responsible."

Kagura's breath hitched.

Sougo's gaze was faraway. "At the end of it, I took my own life; but the Ten Kings were waiting for me. Suicide wasn't enough - to redeem myself, I would have to repent to the one hundred thousand innocent people of the Moon Kingdom by serving their reincarnated souls across the centuries. The Guest House of the Sun was established as a way to do that, and until I've satisfied every soul, I'm forbidden from entering the afterlife."

Kagura stared. "The Guest House of the Sun," she repeated. "The Hotel Del Sol. That's how you became the owner."

His face was grim. "Are you scared yet?"

She looked him long and hard, searching for something that marked him as a dark spirit. She expected to see a new evilness in his eyes, or a twist to his mouth now that she knew the truth. But instead, all she saw was a lonely, exhausted boy. "No."

He shook his head. "Then you're a fool."

He stopped the car outside the Shimura residence. She was about to open the door when he added, "I'm sorry that I've been ignoring you for the past week."

She let go of the door handle. "Why did you do it?"

He sighed. "I was... Worried. That you might have actually been that girl."

"Do you still think I am?"

He turned to her and cocked his head as if to assess her better. She could almost feel the memory of his mouth on hers. "I don't know," he said eventually. "But it would be useless to stay mad at you if you weren't."

She could not help but smile. "Good answer."

She got out of the car, but before she closed the door, she said, "You said you wanted to meet her before you moved on, yes?"

He nodded.

"Will you go? If you do?"

He laid his head back into his chair. "She's one of the last two souls of the Moon Kingdom that I've yet to meet," he replied absently. "I guess we'll see."

She frowned but straightened. "I'll see you tomorrow."

He lifted a hand in goodbye and she closed the door. Sougo drove away. She watched him turn the corner of the street and sat down by the gate. All of a sudden she felt overwhelmed by the knowledge of him. Their kiss seemed like a thing of the past from long ago.

"This is a little weird," said a voice. She looked up to see Kamui standing before her and holding a plastic bag.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kagura accused.

Kamui rolled his eyes. "Do you have no other lines?" he said, and held up his bag. "It's for that Anego of yours. She's been hounding me for eating all of your food last week."

He was dressed casually in jeans and a leather jacket, but Kagura was not so tired so as to not have noticed the ID card hung around his neck and the standard issue gun strapped at his hip. "Did you just get off work?"

Kamui sighed, tugging at his collar. "It's been a long day." He sat down next to her. "Why are you sitting outside like a beggar?"

She didn't answer, thinking of Sougo all of a sudden. "Why did you leave?" she asked. "All those years ago, when we were kids. Why did you go?"

If Kamui was surprised at the question, he didn't show it. He shrugged and said, "Because I wanted to."

"Even though you knew it would hurt people?"

He tilted his head. "Are we still talking about me?"

Kagura wasn't sure. Certainly, she had felt betrayed by Kamui, but save for when he was most annoying, she had never wanted to kill him. She wondered who could have wronged Sougo, and how their betrayal could have driven him to destroy an entire kingdom. Uncomfortably, she was reminded of the girl from her dreams.

"It's nothing," she mumbled, standing up. "I'll give the food to Anego. You can go."

Kamui also got to his feet and deposited the bag in her hands. "Are you going to tell me who you were with tonight? It wasn't the porno man was it?"

She blinked at him in surprise, and he gestured to her wrinkled skirt. "I am a detective, y'know - you just came from a car, and expensive one, judging by the smell of the leather."

"What do you know about expensive cars?" she retorted.

"Don't patronise me, little sister. I stole my fair share of them back in the day."

She snorted. "Right. What does your girlfriend think of your dirty past?"

"Ex-girlfriend,' Kamui reminded her. "But just so you know, she thinks it's incredibly sexy."

Kagura raised an eyebrow. "You haven't gotten back together again yet?"

"Nope," replied her brother cheerfully. "But it should be any day now."

"So fucking weird," muttered Kagura, repeating what she had said about the couple only a week ago. "I shouldn't have introduced you two, yes?" 

Kamui reached out to poke her cheek. "Not at all." 

Kagura was about to warn him from asking her to pass on any stupidly worded messages when she saw a figure poke their head out from behind a telephone pole across the street. She recognised their black bob of hair and shining eyes.

Kagura turned back to her brother. "I'm going inside now," she announced. "You should be going back to whatever hole you crawled out of."

"You haven't even told me who you were with."

"Another time, yes?"

He stared Kagura down with narrowed eyes but ultimately decided that pressing her wasn't worth it. "Fine," he said, stalking away. "If she texts you, tell her I'm not interested."

Kagura rolled her eyes, waiting until her brother had walked the street and around the corner before she finally released a breath. "Come out, Okuni," she said.

The ghost girl came out from behind the pole. "That was definitely your brother," she said without preamble. "You have the same hair."

Kagura touched her vermillion hair, held up in two buns beside her head. "Unfortunately," she said. She looked Okuni up and down and asked, "What are you doing here? Are you even allowed to be out?"

"The hotel isn't a prison," Okuni told her reproachfully.

"No, but you are meant to be signing out tomorrow, aren't you?"

Okuni had often visited Kagura on the reception floor in her week of desk duty and had cheerfully informed her the other day that she had successfully gotten through all of the manga series she had wanted to read, and was finally ready to move on to the afterlife. Kagura had been upset to hear the news, but knew she could not make the girl stay. Now, however, she saw the mild distress in Okuni's expression and wondered if the girl had changed her mind.

Okuni raised her chin. "I'm going to postpone," she confirmed. "I need your help."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To all of you in the comments who said that you watched Hotel Del Luna just for this fic... you're valid and I love you.
> 
> I was really hoping to post before 2020 came to an end, I can't believe I'm updating towards the end of Jan 2021 asgfjhjdhjk. For the longest time I had no idea how to write this chapter. It was SUCH an info dump and honestly it still might not make the most sense, but I hope you guys enjoyed anyway <3
> 
> Everybody lmk what you've been up to! I know covid is still up and kicking, but does anybody have any plans for this year? Any movies or shows you've been enjoying? I've been REALLY getting into kdramas (whoops), so if any of you want to chat or need a good recommendation hmu anytime! Actually that reminds me... I'm totally thinking of doing a Flower of Evil AU for Okikagu sdgfhj. Admittedly, I was thinking of writing a Tale of the Nine Tailed AU (I remember talking about it with somebody here in the comment section), but I don't like the way the drama ended and I feel like it would've turned into another Hotel Del Sol if I tried anything. But Flower of Evil... 👀 God, what a masterpiece. Idk if anybody's watched or heard of it, but I would love to see Okikagu in a dark thriller mystery, c'monnn!  
> (Sidenote: I was also thinking of a Mafia AU, but I don't really know what kind of story to write. Maybe it would have to be a oneshot. Anyway.)
> 
> 2021 has had a pretty rocky start, but I hope you've all been doing well! Do your best to take care of yourself, and be safe outside!
> 
> Love, Arasei <3
> 
> P.S. There is an actual meaning to the number of Kirie's room! It's the episode number that she first appears in :D


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